Multithreaded speech-to-text processing

ABSTRACT

An apparatus includes a processor to: receive a request to perform speech-to-text conversion of a speech data set; perform pause detection to identify a set of likely sentence pauses and/or speaker diarization technique to identify a set of likely speaker changes; based the set of likely sentence pauses and/or the set of likely speaker changes, divide the speech data set into data segments representing speech segments; use an acoustic model with the data segments to derive sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered; store the sets of probabilities in temporal order within a buffer queue; distribute the sets of probabilities from the buffer queue in temporal order among threads of a thread pool; and within each thread, and based on set(s) of probabilities, derive one candidate word and select either the candidate word or an alternate candidate word derived from a language model as the next word most likely spoken.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat. Application 17/993,385 filedNov. 23, 2022, and entitled “Multithreaded Speech Data Preprocessing”;which is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat. Application 17/851,264 filed Jun. 28,2022, and entitled “Speech Segmentation Based on Combination of PauseDetection and Speaker Diarization”; which is a continuation-in-part of,and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat.Application 17/498,811 filed Oct. 12, 2021, and entitled “Dual Use ofAcoustic Model in Speech-to-Text Framework” (since issued as U.S. Pat.11,373,655); each of which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

Both U.S. Pat. Application 17/993,385 and U.S. Pat. Application17/851,264 also claim the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §1 19(e)to both U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63/297,002 filed Jan. 6,2022 and U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63/288,385 filed Dec.10, 2021, both entitled “Joint Approach for Speech Segmentation andSpeaker Diarization for Live-Stream Audio Input and An ImprovedThread-Pool-Based Pipeline for Long Audio Transcription”; each of whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

U.S. Pat. Application 17/498,811 is a continuation-in-part of, andclaims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat.Application 17/205,871 filed Mar. 18, 2021, and entitled “Dynamic ModelSelection In Speech-to-Text Processing” (since issued as U.S. Pat.11,145,309); which is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefitof priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat. Application 17/138,521filed Dec. 30, 2020, and entitled “Speech Audio Pre-ProcessingSegmentation” (since issued as U.S. Pat. 11,049,502); which is acontinuation of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120to, U.S. Pat. Application 17/138,445 filed Dec. 30, 2020, and entitled“Speech Audio Pre-Processing Segmentation” (since issued as U.S. Pat.11,138,979); which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C.§119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 62/991,275 filed Mar.18, 2020, and entitled “A Pipeline for Information Extraction from AudioFiles”; each of which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

U.S. Pat. Application 17/498,811 is also a continuation-in-part of, andclaims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. Pat.Application 17/370,441 filed Jul. 8, 2021, and entitled“Speech-to-Analytics Framework with Support for Large N-Gram Corpora”(since issued as U.S. Pat. 11,404,053); which is a continuation of, andclaims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, InternationalApplication No. PCT/CN2021/082572 filed Mar. 24, 2021, and entitled“Speech-to-Analytics Framework with Support for Large N-Gram Corpora”;each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

To be more precise, International Application No. PCT/CN2021/082572designates the United States such that it is eligible to be treated asif it were “a national application for patent regularly filed in thePatent and Trademark Office” with its Mar. 24, 2021 international filingdate being treated as the filing date on which such regular filing isdeemed to have occurred, as per at least 35 U.S.C. §363. Therefore, andas per at least 35 U.S.C. §120 and §365(c), U.S. Pat. Application17/370,441 claims domestic priority to International Application No.PCT/CN2021/082572 as a “bypass” application (more specifically, a“bypass” continuation application).

BACKGROUND

It has become commonplace to perform automated speech-to-text conversionof captured speech audio. Such a conversion to text may be performed aspart of receiving verbal commands used as input for the provision ofvarious voice-controlled online services. Such a conversion to text maybe performed as part of indexing and/or memorializing the contents ofrecorded voice messages or of phone conversations for future retrievaland reference. Such indexing and/or memorializing may be done as part ofarchiving official records, preserving testimony in judicialproceedings, preserving data gathered in scientific and/or medical fieldstudies, etc.

Alternatively or additionally, such a conversion to text may be used aspart of various automated analyses of the contents of conversations orverbal presentations to retrieve various insights. Such analyses mayinclude an evaluation of the quality of service provided in telephoneservice calls, the efficiency or effectiveness of communication inemergency services calls, the effectiveness of an effort to disseminateinformation to the public in press interviews or in other verbalpresentations, the audience participation and/or reaction to a verbalpresentation, the identification of topic(s) of conversations and/orverbal presentations, the relative degrees of focus of each topic amongmultiple topics, the relative levels of participation among multiplespeakers, the type and/or strength of sentiments concerning topics, etc.Such automated retrieval of insights may be performed to enhance theindexing and/or memorializing the contents of captured speech audio.

Regardless of the purpose for performing automated speech-to-textconversion and/or automated analyses, a longstanding challenge has beenimproving the accuracy of the speech-to-text conversion and/or of theanalyses. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, there arenumerous challenges, including and not limited to, quality issues withthe devices used to capture speech audio, high environmental noiselevels, languages having multiple dialects, differences in regionalaccents, differences in idiomatic expressions, and/or per-persondifferences in pronunciation, speed of speaking, speaking volume, speechimpediments, etc. Such accuracy issues with speech-to-text conversionresult in the provision of error-laden text as the input to textanalyses, which in turn, results in the generation of false andmisleading insights.

Over time, various significant improvements have been made to acousticmodels and language models that are used. However, there remainschallenges in this technical field. By way of example, the preprocessingused to divide streamed speech audio and/or lengthy recorded speechaudio into segments has seen comparatively little improvement.

SUMMARY

This summary is not intended to identify only key or essential featuresof the described subject matter, nor is it intended to be used inisolation to determine the scope of the described subject matter. Thesubject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portionsof the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings, andeach claim.

An apparatus includes at least one processor and a storage to storeinstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe at least one processor to perform operations including receive, froma requesting device via a network, a request to perform speech-to-textconversion of a specified speech data set representing speech audio. Theat least one processor is also caused to, in response to the request,perform preprocessing operations including: within a first thread of athread pool that includes multiple threads of execution supported by theat least one processor, perform a first pause detection technique toidentify a first set of likely sentence pauses in the speech audio;within a second thread of the thread pool, perform a second pausedetection technique to identify a second set of likely sentence pausesin the speech audio; and perform a speaker diarization technique toidentify a set of likely speaker changes in the speech audio. The atleast one processor is further caused to, in response to the request,perform speech-to-text processing operations including: divide thespeech data set into multiple data segments that each represent a speechsegment of multiple speech segments of the speech audio based on acombination of at least the first set of likely sentence pauses, thesecond set of likely sentence pauses, and the set of likely speakerchanges; use at least an acoustic model with each data segment of themultiple data segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speechaudio; and generate a transcript of the speech data set based, at leastin part, on the identified likely speech sounds, or transmit anindication of the generation of the transcript to the requesting device.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to causeat least one processor to perform operations including receive, from arequesting device via a network, a request to perform speech-to-textconversion of a specified speech data set representing speech audio. Theat least one processor is also caused to, in response to the request,perform preprocessing operations including: within a first thread of athread pool that includes multiple threads of execution supported by theat least one processor, perform a first pause detection technique toidentify a first set of likely sentence pauses in the speech audio;within a second thread of the thread pool, perform a second pausedetection technique to identify a second set of likely sentence pausesin the speech audio; and perform a speaker diarization technique toidentify a set of likely speaker changes in the speech audio. The atleast one processor is further caused to, in response to the request,perform speech-to-text processing operations including: divide thespeech data set into multiple data segments that each represent a speechsegment of multiple speech segments of the speech audio based on acombination of at least the first set of likely sentence pauses, thesecond set of likely sentence pauses, and the set of likely speakerchanges; use at least an acoustic model with each data segment of themultiple data segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speechaudio; and generate a transcript of the speech data set based, at leastin part, on the identified likely speech sounds, or transmit anindication of the generation of the transcript to the requesting device.

The first pause detection technique and the second pause detectiontechnique may differ at least in susceptibility to inaccuracies inidentifying sentence pauses caused by audio noise. The at least oneprocessor may be caused to perform preprocessing operations including:based on the difference in susceptibility, and based on a level of audionoise present within the speech audio, derive a relative weighting amongat least the first set of likely sentence pauses and the second set oflikely sentence pauses; and based on the relative weighting, selectlikely sentence pauses for inclusion in a converged set of likelysentence pauses from among at least the first set of likely sentencepauses and the second set of likely sentence pauses. Dividing the speechdata set into the multiple data segments based on the combination of atleast the first set of likely sentence pauses, the second set of likelysentence pauses, and the set of likely speaker changes may includedividing the speech data set into the multiple data segments based on acombination of the converged set of likely sentence pauses and the setof likely speaker changes.

The first pause detection technique may include use, within the firstthread, of comparisons of peak amplitudes of portions of the speechaudio to a threshold amplitude to identify likely sentence pauses of thefirst set of likely sentence pauses; and the second pause detectiontechnique may include use, within the second thread, of counts ofquantities of consecutive blank symbols output by a neural networkimplementing an acoustic model to identify likely sentence pauses of thesecond set of likely sentence pauses.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may include the at leastone processor being caused to perform further preprocessing operationsincluding: divide the speech data set into a set of data fragments thateach represent a fragment of a set of fragments of the speech audio;based on the converged set of likely sentence pauses, identify eachfragment of the set of fragments of the speech audio that includes aportion of a likely sentence pause; and limit data fragments of the setof data fragments that are used to perform speaker diarization to datafragments that are not identified as including a portion of a likelysentence pause.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may include the at leastone processor being caused to perform, within a third thread, and inparallel with performing the first pause detection technique and thesecond pause detection technique, further preprocessing operationsincluding: divide the speech data set into a set of data fragments thateach represent a fragment of a set of fragments of the speech audio;provide, to a speaker diarization neural network trained to outputindications of vocal characteristics, each data fragment of the set ofdata fragments as an input to generate a corresponding speaker vector ofa set of speaker vectors as an output, wherein each speaker vectorcomprises indications of vocal characteristics detected within thecorresponding data fragment; cluster the speaker vectors of the set ofspeaker vectors to identify the speakers of the set of speakers; andidentify each instance of a change in speaker between temporallyconsecutive fragments of the speech audio as a speaker change of the setof likely speaker changes.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may further include the atleast one processor being caused to perform, within the third thread,further preprocessing operations comprising instantiate the speakerdiarization neural network.

The first pause detection technique may include use, within the firstthread, of comparisons of peak amplitudes of portions of the speechaudio to a threshold amplitude to identify likely sentence pauses of thefirst set of likely sentence pauses. Performing the first pausedetection technique may include the at least one processor being causedto perform, within the first thread, further preprocessing operationsincluding: derive the threshold amplitude based on at least one peakamplitude of the speech audio; and derive an audio noise level based onat least one measure of a level of audio noise present within the speechaudio. Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of themultiple data segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speechaudio may include the at least one processor being caused to performfurther speech-to-text processing operations including: analyzeprobability distributions that are output by the acoustic model, andthat identify likely speech sounds, to identify combinations of speechsounds that correspond to candidate words; for each candidate word, usea language model to derive a corresponding candidate set of n-gramsaccompanied by corresponding indications of relative probabilities ofuse of each n-gram within the candidate set of n-grams; use at least theaudio noise level to derive a weighting of relative susceptibility ofthe accuracy of the acoustic model and of the accuracy of the languagemodel to the audio noise of the speech audio; and use the weightingalong with at least one of probability distributions output by theacoustic model or the indications of relative probabilities output bythe language model to identify each word that is to be included in thetranscript.

The acoustic model may include a neural network trained to identifylikely speech sounds in the speech audio; the acoustic model may outputsymbols that indicate at least one of graphemes or phonemes describingspeech sounds; the acoustic model may include a connectionist temporalclassification (CTC) output trained to output blank symbols indicativeof consecutive instances of a text character; the second pause detectiontechnique may include use, within the second thread, of counts ofquantities of consecutive blank symbols output by the neural network toidentify likely sentence pauses of the second set of likely sentencepauses; and performing the second sentence pause detection technique mayinclude the at least one processor being caused to perform, within thesecond thread, and in parallel with performing the first pause detectiontechnique, further preprocessing operations comprising instantiate aninstance of the neural network.

Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of the multipledata segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speech audio mayinclude the at least one processor being caused to performspeech-to-text processing operations including: instantiate anotherinstance of the neural network; and provide indications of detectedacoustic features of the speech segment of each data segment to theother instance of the acoustic model neural network as an input, andmonitor outputs of the other instance of the acoustic model neuralnetwork for corresponding probability distributions indicative ofrelative probabilities of speech sounds, including probabilities ofconsecutive instances of a text character indicated by the CTC output.

Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of the multipledata segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speech audio mayinclude the at least one processor being caused to perform operationsincluding: analyze probability distributions that are output by theacoustic model, and that identify likely speech sounds, to identifycombinations of speech sounds that correspond to candidate words; foreach candidate word, perform, within a separate thread of the threadpool, an instance of a beam search of a language corpus of the languagemodel to derive a corresponding candidate set of n-grams accompanied bycorresponding indications of relative probabilities of use of eachn-gram within the candidate set of n-grams; and use at least one ofprobability distributions output by the acoustic model or indications ofrelative probabilities output by the language model to identify eachword that is to be included in the transcript.

A computer-implemented method includes receiving, by at least oneprocessor, and from a requesting device via a network, a request toperform speech-to-text conversion of a specified speech data setrepresenting speech audio. The method also includes, in response to therequest, performing preprocessing operations including: within a firstthread of a thread pool that comprises multiple threads of executionsupported by the at least one processor, performing, by the at least oneprocessor, a first pause detection technique to identify a first set oflikely sentence pauses in the speech audio; within a second thread ofthe thread pool, performing, by the at least one processor, a secondpause detection technique to identify a second set of likely sentencepauses in the speech audio; and performing, by the at least oneprocessor, a speaker diarization technique to identify a set of likelyspeaker changes in the speech audio. The method further includes, inresponse to the request, performing speech-to-text processing operationsincluding: dividing the speech data set into multiple data segments thateach represent a speech segment of multiple speech segments of thespeech audio based on a combination of at least the first set of likelysentence pauses, the second set of likely sentence pauses, and the setof likely speaker changes; using, by the at least one processor, atleast an acoustic model with each data segment of the multiple datasegments to identify likely speech sounds in the speech audio; andgenerating, by the at least one processor, a transcript of the speechdata set based, at least in part, on the identified likely speechsounds, or transmitting, from the at least one processor, an indicationof the generation of the transcript to the requesting device.

The first pause detection technique and the second pause detectiontechnique may differ at least in susceptibility to inaccuracies inidentifying sentence pauses caused by audio noise. Performingpreprocessing operations may further include: based on the difference insusceptibility, and based on a level of audio noise present within thespeech audio, deriving, by the at least one processor, a relativeweighting among at least the first set of likely sentence pauses and thesecond set of likely sentence pauses; and based on the relativeweighting, selecting, by the at least one processor, likely sentencepauses for inclusion in a converged set of likely sentence pauses fromamong at least the first set of likely sentence pauses and the secondset of likely sentence pauses. Dividing the speech data set into themultiple data segments based on the combination of at least the firstset of likely sentence pauses, the second set of likely sentence pauses,and the set of likely speaker changes may include dividing, by the atleast one processor, the speech data set into the multiple data segmentsbased on a combination of the converged set of likely sentence pausesand the set of likely speaker changes.

The first pause detection technique may include using, by the at leastone processor, and within the first thread, comparisons of peakamplitudes of portions of the speech audio to a threshold amplitude toidentify likely sentence pauses of the first set of likely sentencepauses; and the second pause detection technique may include using, bythe at least one processor, and within the second thread, counts ofquantities of consecutive blank symbols output by a neural networkimplementing an acoustic model to identify likely sentence pauses of thesecond set of likely sentence pauses.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may include performingfurther preprocessing operations including: dividing the speech data setinto a set of data fragments that each represent a fragment of a set offragments of the speech audio; based on the converged set of likelysentence pauses, identifying, by the at least one processor, eachfragment of the set of fragments of the speech audio that includes aportion of a likely sentence pause; and limiting, by the at least oneprocessor, data fragments of the set of data fragments that are used toperform speaker diarization to data fragments that are not identified asincluding a portion of a likely sentence pause.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may include performing,within a third thread, and in parallel with performing the first pausedetection technique and the second pause detection technique, furtherpreprocessing operations including: dividing the speech data set into aset of data fragments that each represent a fragment of a set offragments of the speech audio; providing, to a speaker diarizationneural network trained to output indications of vocal characteristics,each data fragment of the set of data fragments as an input to generatea corresponding speaker vector of a set of speaker vectors as an output,wherein each speaker vector comprises indications of vocalcharacteristics detected within the corresponding data fragment;clustering, by the at least one processor, the speaker vectors of theset of speaker vectors to identify the speakers of the set of speakers;and identifying, by the at least one processor, each instance of achange in speaker between temporally consecutive fragments of the speechaudio as a speaker change of the set of likely speaker changes.

Performing the speaker diarization technique may further includeperforming, within the third thread, further preprocessing operationsincluding instantiating, by the at least one processor, the speakerdiarization neural network.

The first pause detection technique may include using, by the at leastone processor, and within the first thread, comparisons of peakamplitudes of portions of the speech audio to a threshold amplitude toidentify likely sentence pauses of the first set of likely sentencepauses. Performing the first pause detection technique may includeperforming, within the first thread, further preprocessing operationsincluding: deriving, by the at least one processor, the thresholdamplitude based on at least one peak amplitude of the speech audio; andderiving, by the at least one processor, an audio noise level based onat least one measure of a level of audio noise present within the speechaudio. Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of themultiple data segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speechaudio may include performing further speech-to-text processingoperations including: analyzing, by the at least one processor,probability distributions that are output by the acoustic model, andthat identify likely speech sounds, to identify combinations of speechsounds that correspond to candidate words; for each candidate word,using, by the at least one processor, a language model to derive acorresponding candidate set of n-grams accompanied by correspondingindications of relative probabilities of use of each n-gram within thecandidate set of n-grams; using, by the at least one processor, at leastthe audio noise level to derive a weighting of relative susceptibilityof the accuracy of the acoustic model and of the accuracy of thelanguage model to the audio noise of the speech audio; and using, by theat least one processor, the weighting along with at least one ofprobability distributions output by the acoustic model or theindications of relative probabilities output by the language model toidentify each word that is to be included in the transcript.

The acoustic model may include a neural network trained to identifylikely speech sounds in the speech audio; the acoustic model may outputsymbols that indicate at least one of graphemes or phonemes describingspeech sounds; the acoustic model may include a connectionist temporalclassification (CTC) output trained to output blank symbols indicativeof consecutive instances of a text character; the second pause detectiontechnique may include using, by the at least one processor, and withinthe second thread, counts of quantities of consecutive blank symbolsoutput by the neural network to identify likely sentence pauses of thesecond set of likely sentence pauses; and performing the second sentencepause detection technique may include performing, by the at least oneprocessor, within the second thread, and in parallel with performing thefirst pause detection technique, further preprocessing operationscomprising instantiating an instance of the neural network.

Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of the multipledata segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speech audio mayincluding performing speech-to-text processing operations including:instantiating, by the at least one processor, another instance of theneural network; and providing indications of detected acoustic featuresof the speech segment of each data segment to the other instance of theacoustic model neural network as an input, and monitoring outputs of theother instance of the acoustic model neural network for correspondingprobability distributions indicative of relative probabilities of speechsounds, including probabilities of consecutive instances of a textcharacter indicated by the CTC output.

Using at least the acoustic model with each data segment of the multipledata segments to identify likely speech sounds in the speech audio mayinclude performing operations including: analyzing, by the at least oneprocessor, probability distributions that are output by the acousticmodel, and that identify likely speech sounds, to identify combinationsof speech sounds that correspond to candidate words; for each candidateword, performing, by the at least one processor, and within a separatethread of the thread pool, an instance of a beam search of a languagecorpus of the language model to derive a corresponding candidate set ofn-grams accompanied by corresponding indications of relativeprobabilities of use of each n-gram within the candidate set of n-grams;and using, by the at least one processor, at least one of probabilitydistributions output by the acoustic model or indications of relativeprobabilities output by the language model to identify each word that isto be included in the transcript.

An apparatus includes at least one processor and a storage to storeinstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe at least one processor to perform operations including receive, froma requesting device via a network, a request to perform speech-to-textconversion of a first speech data set representing a first speech audio.The at least one processor is also caused to, in response to therequest, the at least one processor is caused to perform, within a firstnode device, preprocessing operations including: perform at least onepause detection technique to identify at least a first set of likelysentence pauses; or perform at least one speaker diarization techniqueto identify at least a first set of likely speaker changes. The at leastone processor is further caused to, in response to the request, the atleast one processor is caused to perform, within the first node device,speech-to-text processing operations including: based on at least one ofthe first set of likely sentence pauses or the first set of likelyspeaker changes, divide the first speech data set into multiple datasegments that each represent a speech segment of multiple speechsegments of the first speech audio; use a first instance of an acousticmodel with each data segment of the multiple data segments to derivesets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the correspondingspeech segment; store the sets of probabilities in temporal order withina first buffer queue instantiated within the first node device;distribute the sets of probabilities, from the first buffer queue and intemporal order, among multiple threads of a first thread pool, whereineach thread of the first thread pool comprises a thread of executionsupported by the at least one processor; and within each thread of thefirst thread pool, the at least one processor is caused to performoperations including derive at least a first candidate word from one ormore sets of probabilities that are distributed to the thread from thefirst buffer queue, based on at least the one or more sets ofprobabilities distributed to the thread, select either the firstcandidate word or a second candidate word as a next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, wherein the second candidate word isderived within the thread by the at least one processor using a languagemodel, and add the next word most likely spoken to a first transcript ofthe first speech audio.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to causeat least one processor to perform operations including receive, from arequesting device via a network, a request to perform speech-to-textconversion of a first speech data set representing a first speech audio.The at least one processor is also caused to, in response to therequest, the at least one processor is caused to perform, within a firstnode device, preprocessing operations including: perform at least onepause detection technique to identify at least a first set of likelysentence pauses; or perform at least one speaker diarization techniqueto identify at least a first set of likely speaker changes. The at leastone processor is further caused to, in response to the request, the atleast one processor is caused to perform, within the first node device,speech-to-text processing operations including: based on at least one ofthe first set of likely sentence pauses or the first set of likelyspeaker changes, divide the first speech data set into multiple datasegments that each represent a speech segment of multiple speechsegments of the first speech audio; use a first instance of an acousticmodel with each data segment of the multiple data segments to derivesets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the correspondingspeech segment; store the sets of probabilities in temporal order withina first buffer queue instantiated within the first node device;distribute the sets of probabilities, from the first buffer queue and intemporal order, among multiple threads of a first thread pool, whereineach thread of the first thread pool comprises a thread of executionsupported by the at least one processor; and within each thread of thefirst thread pool, the at least one processor is caused to performoperations including derive at least a first candidate word from one ormore sets of probabilities that are distributed to the thread from thefirst buffer queue, based on at least the one or more sets ofprobabilities distributed to the thread, select either the firstcandidate word or a second candidate word as a next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, wherein the second candidate word isderived within the thread by the at least one processor using a languagemodel, and add the next word most likely spoken to a first transcript ofthe first speech audio.

Within the first node device: the first buffer queue may be implementedin a first-in-first-out (FIFO) configuration; the sets of probabilitiesstored within the first buffer queue may be distributed among thethreads of the first thread pool as the derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the first thread pool, and foraddition to the first transcript, are completed; the language model maybe implemented as a language corpus stored within the first node deviceas a first corpus data set; the multiple threads of the first threadpool may share access to the first corpus data set; and within eachthread of the first thread pool, the second candidate word may bederived from beam searches of the first corpus data set based on one ormore temporally preceding words already selected for addition to thefirst transcript.

The apparatus may further include multiple node devices; the multiplenode devices may include the first node device and a second node device;a second buffer queue may be instantiated within the second node device;a second corpus data set may be stored within the second node device; asecond thread pool that may include multiple threads may be instantiatedwithin the second node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool may share access to the second corpus data set; sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within a corresponding speechsegment of a second speech audio are stored in temporal order within thesecond buffer queue; and the sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within the second speech audio may be distributed, in temporalorder, among the multiple threads of the second thread pool asderivation and selection of candidate words, based on the sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speech audio,within each thread of the second thread pool are completed for words toadd to a second transcript of the second speech audio.

The second buffer queue may be implemented in a FIFO configuration; andthe sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the secondspeech audio may be derived using a second instance of the acousticmodel.

A second buffer queue may be instantiated within the first node device;a second thread pool comprising multiple threads may be instantiatedwithin the first node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool may share access to the first corpus data set with the multiplethreads of the first thread pool; sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within a corresponding speech segment of a second speech audiomay be stored in temporal order within the second buffer queue; and thesets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speechaudio may be distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threadsof the second thread pool, based on the sets of probabilities of speechsounds uttered within the second speech audio, as derivation andselection of candidate words within each thread of the second threadpool are completed for words to add to a second transcript of the secondspeech audio.

Selecting, within each thread of the first thread pool, either the firstcandidate word or the second candidate word based on at least the one ormore sets of probabilities distributed to the thread may include the atleast one processor being caused to perform, within the thread,operations including: analyze the one or more sets of probabilitiesdistributed to the thread to derive a degree of uncertainty; compare thedegree of uncertainty to a threshold degree of uncertainty; in responseto the degree of uncertainty being less than the threshold degree ofuncertainty, the at least one processor is caused to select either thefirst candidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the firstspeech audio; and in response to at least the degree of uncertaintybeing greater than the threshold degree of uncertainty, the at least oneprocessor is caused to select the second candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the speech audio.

Within each thread of the first thread pool, the at least one processormay be caused to condition expending processing resources to use thelanguage model to derive the second candidate word on the degree ofuncertainty.

The at least one processor may be caused to perform furtherpreprocessing operations including measuring a noise level of at least aportion of the first speech audio; and selecting, within each thread ofthe first thread pool, either the first candidate word or the secondcandidate word based on at least the one or more sets of probabilitiesdistributed to the thread comprises the at least one processor beingcaused to perform, within the thread, operations including compare thenoise level to a threshold noise level, in response to the noise levelbeing less than the threshold noise level, the at least one processor iscaused to select the first candidate word as the next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, and in response to at least the noiselevel being greater than the threshold noise level, the at least oneprocessor is caused to select the second candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the speech audio.

Within each thread of the first thread pool, the at least one processormay be caused to condition expending processing resources to use thelanguage model to derive the second candidate word on the noise level.

The first buffer queue may include multiple data buffers; storing thesets of probabilities in temporal order within the first buffer queuemay include storing, within each data buffer of the multiple databuffers, multiple sets of probabilities that are derived by the acousticmodel from a single data segment of the first speech audio; anddistributing the sets of probabilities, from the first buffer queue andin temporal order, among the multiple threads of the first thread poolmay include distributing, to each thread of the first thread pool, themultiple sets of probabilities stored within a single data buffer of thefirst buffer queue.

A computer-implemented method includes receiving, by at least oneprocessor, and from a requesting device via a network, a request toperform speech-to-text conversion of a first speech data setrepresenting a first speech audio. The method also includes, in responseto the request, performing, within a first node device, preprocessingoperations including: performing, by the at least one processor, atleast one pause detection technique to identify at least a first set oflikely sentence pauses; or performing, by the at least one processor, atleast one speaker diarization technique to identify at least a first setof likely speaker changes. The method further includes, in response tothe request, performing, within the first node device, speech-to-textprocessing operations including: based on at least one of the first setof likely sentence pauses or the first set of likely speaker changes,dividing the first speech data set into multiple data segments that eachrepresent a speech segment of multiple speech segments of the firstspeech audio; using, by the at least one processor, a first instance ofan acoustic model with each data segment of the multiple data segmentsto derive sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within thecorresponding speech segment; storing the sets of probabilities intemporal order within a first buffer queue instantiated within the firstnode device; distributing, by the at least one processor, the sets ofprobabilities, from the first buffer queue and in temporal order, amongmultiple threads of a first thread pool, wherein each thread of thefirst thread pool comprises a thread of execution supported by the atleast one processor; and within each thread of the first thread pool,performing operations including deriving, by the at least one processor,at least a first candidate word from one or more sets of probabilitiesthat are distributed to the thread from the first buffer queue, based onat least the one or more sets of probabilities distributed to thethread, selecting, by the at least one processor, either the firstcandidate word or a second candidate word as a next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, wherein the second candidate word isderived within the thread by the at least one processor using a languagemodel, and adding the next word most likely spoken to a first transcriptof the first speech audio.

Within the first node device: the first buffer queue may be implementedin a first-in-first-out (FIFO) configuration; the sets of probabilitiesstored within the first buffer queue may be distributed among thethreads of the first thread pool as the derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the first thread pool, and foraddition to the first transcript, are completed; the language model maybe implemented as a language corpus stored within the first node deviceas a first corpus data set; the multiple threads of the first threadpool may share access to the first corpus data set; and the method mayinclude, within each thread of the first thread pool, deriving, by theat least one processor, the second candidate word from beam searches ofthe first corpus data set based on one or more temporally precedingwords already selected for addition to the first transcript.

The first node device and a second node device may be two node devicesof multiple node devices; a second buffer queue may be instantiatedwithin the second node device; a second corpus data set may be storedwithin the second node device; a second thread pool including multiplethreads may be instantiated within the second node device; the multiplethreads of the second thread pool may share access to the second corpusdata set; sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within acorresponding speech segment of a second speech audio may be stored intemporal order within the second buffer queue; and the sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speech audiomay be distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threads of thesecond thread pool as derivation and selection of candidate words, basedon the sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the secondspeech audio, within each thread of the second thread pool are completedfor words to add to a second transcript of the second speech audio.

The second buffer queue may be implemented in a FIFO configuration; andthe method may include using, by the at least one processor, a secondinstance of the acoustic model to derive the sets of probabilities ofspeech sounds uttered within the second speech audio.

A second buffer queue may be instantiated within the first node device;a second thread pool including multiple threads may be instantiatedwithin the first node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool may share access to the first corpus data set with the multiplethreads of the first thread pool; sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within a corresponding speech segment of a second speech audiomay be stored in temporal order within the second buffer queue; and thesets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speechaudio may be distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threadsof the second thread pool, based on the sets of probabilities of speechsounds uttered within the second speech audio, as derivation andselection of candidate words within each thread of the second threadpool are completed for words to add to a second transcript of the secondspeech audio.

Selecting, within each thread of the first thread pool, either the firstcandidate word or the second candidate word based on at least the one ormore sets of probabilities distributed to the thread may includeperforming, within the thread, operations including: analyzing, by theat least one processor, the one or more sets of probabilitiesdistributed to the thread to derive a degree of uncertainty; comparing,by the at least one processor, the degree of uncertainty to a thresholddegree of uncertainty; in response to the degree of uncertainty beingless than the threshold degree of uncertainty, selecting, by the atleast one processor, either the first candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the first speech audio; and in response to atleast the degree of uncertainty being greater than the threshold degreeof uncertainty, selecting, by the at least one processor, the secondcandidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the speech audio.

The method may include, within each thread of the first thread pool,conditioning expending processing resources to use the language model toderive the second candidate word on the degree of uncertainty.

The method may include performing further preprocessing operationscomprising measuring a noise level of at least a portion of the firstspeech audio. Selecting, within each thread of the first thread pool,either the first candidate word or the second candidate word based on atleast the one or more sets of probabilities distributed to the threadmay include performing, within the thread, operations including:comparing, by the at least one processor, the noise level to a thresholdnoise level; in response to the noise level being less than thethreshold noise level, selecting, by the at least one processor, thefirst candidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the firstspeech audio; and in response to at least the noise level being greaterthan the threshold noise level, selecting, by the at least oneprocessor, the second candidate word as the next word most likely spokenin the speech audio.

The method may include, within each thread of the first thread pool,conditioning expending processing resources to use the language model toderive the second candidate word on the noise level.

The first buffer queue may include multiple data buffers; storing thesets of probabilities in temporal order within the first buffer queuemay include storing, within each data buffer of the multiple databuffers, multiple sets of probabilities that are derived by the acousticmodel from a single data segment of the first speech audio; anddistributing the sets of probabilities, from the first buffer queue andin temporal order, among the multiple threads of the first thread poolmay include distributing, by the at least one processor, to each threadof the first thread pool, the multiple sets of probabilities storedwithin a single data buffer of the first buffer queue.

The foregoing, together with other features and embodiments, will becomemore apparent upon referring to the following specification, claims, andaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram that provides an illustration of thehardware components of a computing system, according to some embodimentsof the present technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set ofdevices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via anetwork, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of acommunications protocol system, according to some embodiments of thepresent technology.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system including avariety of control and worker nodes, according to some embodiments ofthe present technology.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for adjustinga communications grid or a work project in a communications grid after afailure of a node, according to some embodiments of the presenttechnology.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing systemincluding a control node and a worker node, according to someembodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for executinga data analysis or processing project, according to some embodiments ofthe present technology.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an EventStream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the presenttechnology.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process includingoperations performed by an event stream processing engine, according tosome embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system interfacing between a publishingdevice and multiple event subscribing devices, according to embodimentsof the present technology.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process ofgenerating and using a machine-learning model according to some aspects.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example machine-learning model based on a neuralnetwork.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of distributed execution of routinesusing multiple containers.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D, 14E and 14F, together, illustrate differingexample embodiments of a processing system.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, 15E and 15F, together, illustrate aspects ofan example implementation of a framework based on the example embodimentof FIGS. 14A-C.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E and 16F, together, illustrate aspects ofan example implementation of a framework based on the example embodimentof FIGS. 14D-F.

FIGS. 17A, 17B and 17C, together, illustrate an example of employing anAPA pause detection technique to derive a pause set of indications oflikely sentence pauses within the speech audio of a speech data set.

FIGS. 18A and 18B, together, illustrate an example of employing a CTCpause detection technique to derive another pause set of indications oflikely sentence pauses within the same speech audio of the same speechdata set of FIGS. 17A-C.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C and 19D, together, illustrate an example ofemploying a speaker diarization technique to derive a change set ofindications of likely speaker changes within the speech audio of thesame speech data set of FIGS. 17A-C

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C and 20D, together, illustrate differing examples ofcombining pause set(s) of indications of likely speech pauses generatedin FIGS. 17A-C and in FIGS. 18A-B with at least one change set ofindications of likely speaker changes generated in FIGS. 19A-D togenerate a single converged set of indications of likely sentence pausesin either of the example embodiments of FIGS. 14A-C or FIGS. 14D-F.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D, 21E, 21F, 21G, 21H and 21I, taken together,illustrate an example of using the data segments generated in FIGS.20A-C, an acoustic model, and n-gram language model to generate atranscript in the example embodiment of FIGS. 14A-B.

FIGS. 22A, 22B, 22C, 22D, 22E and 22F, taken together, illustrate anexample of using the data segments generated in FIGS. 20A-B, an acousticmodel, and n-gram language model to generate a transcript in the exampleembodiment of FIGS. 14D-F.

FIGS. 23A, 23B and 23C each illustrate examples of additionalenhancements to the speech-to-text processing operations of either FIGS.21A-I or FIGS. 22A-F.

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, 24E, 24F and 24G, together, illustrate aspectsof the generation and/or augmentation of a larger than commonplacen-gram corpus of the type that may be used as described in theprocessing operations of FIGS. 21A-I, 22A-F and 23A-C.

FIGS. 25A, 25B, 25C, 25D, 25E and 25F, together, illustrate an examplelogic flow of operations performed within a processing system to performpre-processing and speech-to-text processing operations.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example logic flow of operations performed withina processing system to perform speech-to-text processing operations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for improvingthe accuracy of speech-to-text conversion and efficacy of associatedtext analytics. More specifically, a framework for the derivation ofinsights into the content of pieces of speech audio may incorporate achain of pre-processing, processing and post-processing operations thatare selected to provide improved insights. During pre-processing, as analternative to the commonplace approach of simply dividing speech audiointo equal-length segments without regard to its content, a combinationof pause detection techniques is used to identify likely sentencepauses. Additionally speaker diarization may also be performed toidentify likely changes between speakers. The speech audio is thendivided into speech segments at likely sentence pauses and/or at likelyspeaker changes so that the resulting speech segments are more likely tocontain the pronunciations of complete sentences by individual speakers.During speech-to-text processing, the derived probability distributionsassociated with the identification of more likely graphemes (e.g., textcharacters representing phonemes) and/or pauses by an acoustic model, aswell as the probability distributions associated with the identificationof more likely n-grams by a language model, are used in identifying thesentences spoken in the speech audio to generate a correspondingtranscript. During text analytics post-processing, the correspondingtranscript is analyzed to select words that are pertinent to identifyingtopics or sentiments about topics, and/or analyzed along with othertranscripts to identify relationships between different pieces of speechaudio.

Turning to the pre-processing operations, as will be familiar to thoseskilled in the art, many of the components employed in performing manyof the processing operations of speech-to-text conversion (e.g.,acoustic feature detection, acoustic models, language models, etc.) havecapacity limits on how large a portion of speech audio is able to beaccepted as input. Thus, speech audio must be divided into smallerportions that fit within such capacity limits.

As part of an improved approach to dividing speech audio into segments,a combination of multiple pause detection techniques is used to provideimproved identification of pauses in the speech audio that are likely tobe pauses between sentences to enable the division of the speech audiointo segments at least at the midpoints within such likely sentencepauses. By dividing speech audio at least at midpoints within likelysentence pauses to form the segments, each segment is caused to includea higher proportion of complete pronunciations of whole phonemes, wholewords, whole phrases and/or whole sentences, thereby enabling greateraccuracy in the performance of subsequent processing operations. Also,with fewer phonemes and/or other speech parts being split across thedivides between pairs of adjacent segments, there are fewer fragments ofphonemes or other speech parts to potentially cause the errantidentification of extra text characters and/or words that aren’tactually present. Thus, such improvements in the identification oflikely sentence pauses during pre-processing serves to enablecorresponding improvements in subsequent processing operations toidentify text characters, whole words, phrases and/or sentences.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, there are manylinguistic characteristics that vary greatly among the wide variety oflanguages that are spoken around the world. By way of example, themanner in which combinations of tone, volume, generation of vowelsversus consonants, etc., are used to form words may differ greatlybetween languages. However, the manner in which the relative lengths ofpauses are used to separate sounds within words, to separate wordswithin sentences, and to separate sentences tend to be quite similar.More specifically, the relatively short lengths of pauses between soundswithin words tend to arise more out of the time needed to repositionportions of the vocal tract when transitioning from producing one soundto producing another sound amidst pronouncing a word. In contrast, thesomewhat longer lengths of pauses between words tend to be dictated moreby linguistic rules that provide a mechanism to enable a listener tohear the pronunciations of individual words more easily. Similarly, thestill longer lengths of pauses between sentences also tend to bedictated by linguistic rules that provide a mechanism to make clearwhere the speaking of one sentence ends, and the speaking of the nextsentence begins. Thus, the ability to identify pauses and/or todistinguish among pauses within words, pauses between words and/orpauses between sentences may be used by each of the multiple pausedetection techniques to identify likely sentence pauses at which speechaudio may be divided into segments in a manner that may be independentof the language that is spoken.

In preparation for the performance of the multiple pause detectiontechniques, the speech audio may be initially divided into equal-lengthchunks. The full set of chunks of the speech audio may then be providedas an input to each of multiple pause detection techniques, which may beperformed, at least partially in parallel, to each independentlygenerate its corresponding data structure specifying its correspondingset of likely sentence pauses present within the speech audio.

In some embodiments, the multiple pause detection techniques may includean adaptive peak amplitude (APA) pause detection technique in which apeak amplitude is separately determined for each chunk of the speechaudio, with a threshold amplitude being derived therefrom that is usedto distinguish pauses from speech sounds. More precisely, the peakamplitude that occurs within each chunk is measured, and then apreselected percentile amplitude across all of peak amplitudes of all ofthe chunks is derived to become a threshold amplitude. With thethreshold amplitude so derived, all of the chunks with a peak amplitudeabove the threshold amplitude are deemed to be speech chunks, while allof the chunks with a peak amplitude below the threshold amplitude aredeemed to be pause chunks. In this way, the threshold amplitude used indistinguishing pauses from speech sounds is caused to be adaptive toprovide some degree of resiliency in addressing differences in speechaudio amplitude and/or in audio noise levels that may thwart the typicaluse of a fixed threshold amplitude to distinguish between pauses andspeech sounds.

Another adaptive mechanism may then be used to distinguish a pauseoccurring between sentences from other shorter pauses occurring betweenwords or occurring within words, as well as to distinguish from stillother shorter pauses that may occur as a result of various anomalies incapturing the speech audio. Starting at the beginning of the speechaudio, a window that covers a preselected quantity of temporallyadjacent chunks may be shifted across the length of the speech audio,starting with the earliest chunk and proceeding through temporallyadjacent chunks toward the temporally latest chunk. More specifically,with the window positioned to begin with the earliest chunk,measurements of the lengths of each identified pause within the windowmay be taken to identify the longest pause thereamong (i.e., the pausemade up of the longest set of consecutive pause chunks). The longestpause that is so identified within the window may then be deemed likelyto be a sentence pause. The window may then be shifted away from theearliest chunk and along the speech audio so as to cause the window tonow begin with the chunk just after the just-identified likely sentencepause. With the window so repositioned, again, measurements of thelengths of each identified pause within the window may be taken to againidentify the longest pause thereamong. Again, the longest pause that isso identified within the window may be deemed likely to be a sentencepause. This may be repeated until the window has been shifted along theentirety of the length of the speech audio to the temporally latestchunk.

An indication of each of the pauses that has been deemed a likelysentence pause may be added to a set of indications of likely sentencepauses identified by the APA pause detection technique, which may bestored as a distinct data structure. The length of the window may beselected to ensure that there cannot be a distance between any adjacentpair of likely sentence pauses that is greater than a capacitylimitation that may be present in subsequent processing. Alternativelyor additionally, it may be that instances of any adjacent pair of likelysentence pauses that are closer to each other than a predeterminedthreshold period of time are not permitted. Wherever such a pair ofall-too-close adjacent likely sentence pauses might occur, one or theother may be removed from (or not be permitted to be added to) the setof indications of likely sentence pauses identified by the APA pausedetection technique.

Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, the multiple pausedetection techniques may include the use of a connectionist temporalclassification (CTC) pause detection technique in which instances ofconsecutive blank symbols (sometimes also referred to as“non-alphabetical symbols” or “artificial symbols”) generated by a CTCoutput of an acoustic model neural network trained to implement anacoustic model are used to identify likely sentence pauses. Such anacoustic model neural network incorporating a CTC output would normallybe used to identify likely graphemes, such as text charactersrepresenting likely phoneme(s), in speech audio based on variousacoustic features that are identified as present therein. In such normaluse, the CTC output serves to augment the probabilistic indications ofsuch text characters (graphemes) that are generated by the acousticmodel neural network with blank symbols that serve to identify instancesof consecutive occurrences of the same text character (e.g., the pair of“s” characters in the word “chess”), despite the absence of an acousticfeature that would specifically indicate such a situation (e.g., noacoustic feature in the pronunciation of the “s” sound in the word“chess” that indicates that there are two consecutive “s” characterstherein). However, it has been observed through experimentation that theCTC output of such an acoustic model neural network may also be usefulin identifying sentence pauses, as it has been observed that its CTCoutput has a tendency to generate relatively long strings of consecutiveblank symbols that tend to correspond to where sentence pauses occur.

In using such an acoustic model neural network for the detection ofsentence pauses, each chunk is provided to the acoustic model neuralnetwork as an input, and the CTC output for that chunk is monitored foroccurrences of strings of consecutive blank symbols, and the length ofeach such string is compared to a threshold blank string length. Eachstring of consecutive blank symbols that is at least as long as thethreshold blank string length may be deemed to correspond to what islikely a sentence pause. In some embodiments, the threshold blank stringlength may be derived during training of the acoustic model neuralnetwork to implement an acoustic model, and/or during testing of theresults of that training. Portions of speech audio that are known toinclude pauses between sentences may be provided as input to theacoustic model neural network and the lengths of the strings ofconsecutive blank symbols that are output may be monitored to determinewhat the threshold blank string length should be. Regardless of theexact manner in which the threshold blank string length is arrived at,an indication of each of the pauses that has been deemed a likelysentence pause may be added to the set of indications of likely sentencepauses identified by the CTC pause detection technique, which may bestored as a distinct data structure.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the same acoustic modelneural network with CTC output that is employed in the CTC pausedetection technique during preprocessing may also be employed during thesubsequent processing to perform the function for which it was trained.Specifically, that same acoustic model neural network may be used toidentify likely text characters from acoustic features detected in thespeech audio, including using its CTC output to augment suchprobabilistic indications of text characters with blank symbolsindicative of instances in which there are likely consecutiveoccurrences of the same text character.

In some embodiments, following the completion of the performances of allof the multiple pause detection techniques, the resulting multiple setsof indications of likely sentence pauses may then be combined in any ofa variety of ways to generate a single set of indications that describethe manner in which the speech audio is to be divided into segmentsbased on likely sentence pauses. However, in other embodiments, it maybe that the multiple sets of indication of likely sentence pauses may,instead, be used as an input to the performance of at least one speakerdiarization technique to identify instances in the speech audio at whichthere is a change in speaker(s). As will be familiar to those skilled inthe art, while there may be instances in a conversation among two ormore speakers in which at least a subset of sentence pauses may alsomark instances in which there is a change in who is speaking, it is alsonot uncommon for there to be instances in a conversation among two ormore speakers in which there are overlapping speakers, such as instanceswhere one speaker starts speaking while not waiting for another tofinish speaking. As a result, there may be instances where there arechanges in who is speaking that are not coincident with any form ofpause. Therefore, it may be deemed desirable to use at least one speakerdiarization technique to identify instances in the speech audio at whichit is likely there was a change in speakers to further enhance thesegmentation of the speech audio that is to be performed in preparationfor the subsequent speech-to-text processing operations.

In some embodiments, a speaker diarization technique that may be usedmay include the use of a speaker diarization neural network that hasbeen trained to generate speaker vectors that are each indicative ofvarious vocal characteristics of a speaker (or of a combination ofspeakers). More precisely, such a speaker diarization neural network maybe trained to derive binary values that each indicate the presence orabsence of a particular vocal characteristic, and/or to derive numericvalues that each indicate a measure (e.g., a level) associated with aparticular vocal characteristic. These binary and/or numeric values ofvarious vocal characteristics may be combined into a speaker vector(e.g., a one-dimensional array of those binary and/or numeric values).

In a manner somewhat similar to each of the aforedescribed pausedetection techniques, it may be that the speech audio is, again, dividedinto equal-length chunks. Following this division into chunks, eachchunk may be further divided into fragments. Following this divisioninto fragments, the separate sets of indications of likely sentencepauses derived by each of the pause detection techniques may then beused to identify, within each chunk, any fragments that likely include asentence pause such that there is at least a portion of the speech audiowithin such fragments that likely does not include speech sounds. Such“non-speech” fragments may then be removed from each chunk.

Following such removal of non-speech fragment(s) from each chunk, eachremaining fragment of each chunk may then be provided as an input to thespeaker diarization neural network so that a separate speaker vector isgenerated by the speaker diarization neural network for each fragment.For each chunk, the speaker vectors that are generated from thefragments within that chunk may be used together to identify all of thespeakers who spoke within the portion of speech audio represented bythat chunk, as well as each occurrence of a change that occurred duringthat portion of speech audio.

It is envisioned that each speaker vector will include binary and/ornumerical values for each of numerous vocal characteristic such thateach speaker vector may effectively represent a point in amulti-dimensional space. Indeed, a clustering technique may be usedwhere the clustering of points corresponding to the speaker vectors maybe used to identify individual speakers (or combinations of speakers).In such clustering, there may be a threshold distance between pointsthat may be used, at least initially, to distinguish between points thatbelong together in a single cluster that is associated with a singlespeaker (or a single combination of speakers), and points that belong todifferent clusters. Alternatively or additionally, there may be athreshold number of occurrences of outlier points that must beidentified and that must be closely clustered enough for a new speakerto be deemed as having been identified.

Such clustering may be carried out in a chronological order in which thepoint associated with each speaker vector is plotted in an order thatproceeds from the earliest fragment within a chunk to the latestfragment within that chunk. In this way, there may be one or moreinitial clusters that develop from the speaker vectors of the earliestfragments in a chunk. The one or more initial clusters may correspond toone or more speakers who were speaking at the start of the portion ofspeech audio represented by the chunk. As speaker vectors associatedwith increasingly later fragments are also plotted, a change in speakersmay become evident where there ceases to be further points added toexisting cluster(s), and/or as there begin to be points added that beginto form new cluster(s). For each instance in which a speaker beginsspeaking and/or in which a speaker ceases speaking, an indication of alikely speaker change may be added to a set of indications of likelyspeaker changes, which may be stored as a distinct data structure.

Following the completion of the performances of the multiple pausedetection techniques, and following the completion of the performance ofthe at least one speaker diarization technique, the resulting sets ofindications of likely sentence pauses and likely speaker changes maythen be combined in any of a variety of ways to generate a single set ofsegmentation indications that describe the manner in which the speechaudio is to be divided into segments. In some embodiments, such a singleset of segmentation indications may be implemented as a set ofindications of each location in the speech audio at which a divisionbetween segments is to occur, thereby indicating where each segment ofspeech audio begins and/or ends.

The manner in which the multiple sets of indications of likely sentencepauses and of likely speaker changes are combined to derive such asingle set of segmentation indications may include the use of relativeweighting factors for at least the multiple sets of likely sentencepauses that may be dynamically adjusted based on levels of audio noisedetected as being present within the speech audio. This may be done inrecognition of each of the different pause detection techniques beingmore or less susceptible than others to audio noise. Thus, the multiplesets of indications of likely sentence pauses may be combined, first, toderive a single set of indications of likely sentence pauses within thespeech audio. It should be noted that, where more than one speakerdiarization technique was used, a similar approach of using relativeweighting may be applied in combining multiple sets of indications ofspeaker changes to derive a single set of indications of speaker changeswithin the speech audio. Then, the single set of indications of likelysentence pauses and the single set of indications of likely speakerchanges may be combined to derive the single set of segmentationindications.

Upon completion of the pre-processing operations, including segmentationbased on a combination of likely sentence pauses and likely speakerchanges, there may be no further use made of the chunks into which thespeech audio was initially divided, and those chunks may be discardedfrom storage. Instead, the speech audio may be divided, again, to formspeech segments, where each such division between two segments occurs atthe midpoint of one of the likely sentence pauses and/or of one of thelikely speaker changes. Thus, unlike the chunks of speech audio used inthe pre-processing operations, each of the speech segments generated forthe text-to-speech processing operations is more likely to contain thepronunciation of an entire sentence as spoken by a speaker, therebydecreasing the likelihood that the pronunciations of words may be splitacross segments, and increasing the likelihood that the entire contextof each word will be present within a single segment. In this way, eachspeech segment is more likely to contain a more complete set of theacoustic information needed to identify graphemes, phonemes, textcharacters, words, phrases, sentences etc. in the speech-to-textprocessing operations, thereby enabling greater accuracy in doing so.

Turning to the speech-to-text processing operations, each of the speechsegments may be provided as input to a feature detector, in which thespeech audio within each speech segment is searched for any instances ofa pre-selected set of particular acoustic features. It may be thatmultiple instances of the feature detector are executed, at leastpartially in parallel, across multiple threads of execution within asingle device, and/or across multiple node devices. As part of suchfeature detection, each speech segment may be divided into multiplespeech frames that are each of an equal temporal length, and each speechframe of a speech segment may be provided, one at a time, as input to afeature detector. As each instance of an acoustic feature is identifiedwithin a speech frame, an indication of the type of acoustic featureidentified and when it occurs within the span of time covered by thespeech frame may be stored within the feature vector that corresponds tothe speech frame. The feature vectors for each speech segment may thenbe used by a combination of acoustic and language models to identifyspoken words and generate a transcript.

More precisely, the feature vectors for each speech segment may beprovided as input to an acoustic model. The acoustic model may beimplemented using any of a variety of technologies, including and notlimited to, a neural network, a hidden Markov model, or a finite statemachine. It may be that multiple instances of the acoustic model areinstantiated and used, at least partially in parallel, across multiplethreads of execution within a single device, and/or across multiple nodedevices. Based on the acoustic features that are identified by eachfeature vector as present within its corresponding speech frame, theacoustic model may generate probability distributions of the grapheme(s)that were spoken within each speech frame, and/or of the pauses thatoccurred within each speech frame.

Such probability distributions may then be grouped in temporal order toform sets of probability distributions that correspond to the speechsegments, and each such set may then be provided as input to a decoderthat is implemented using an n-gram language model. Using such a set ofprobability distributions, and using the contextual informationinherently provided by their temporal ordering, the decoder may identifythe most likely combinations of words spoken to form sentences (or atleast phrases) within the corresponding speech segment. In this way, thedecoder may derive a transcript of what was spoken in the speech audio,and such a transcript may be stored in a manner that is associated withthe speech audio for future reference.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, it has becomecommonplace (at least in speech recognition systems having sufficientprocessing and storage resources) to employ a two-stage combination ofan acoustic model and a language model to identify the words spoken inspeech audio based on the identified acoustic features. In such speechrecognition systems, the acoustic model is typically relied upon toperform a first pass at identifying words that are likely to be the onesthat were spoken, and the language model is typically relied upon toperform the next and final pass by refining the identification of suchspoken words such that the words identified by the language model arethe ones from which a transcript is generated. Such a two-stage use of acombination of acoustic and language models has proven to besignificantly more accurate in performing speech recognition than theearlier commonplace practice of applying an acoustic model, alone.

However, while the reduction in errors in speech recognition that hasbeen achieved through using such a two-pass combination of acoustic andlanguage models is significant, even this reduced error rate is stillfrequently undesirably high enough as to have merited further effortsover a number of years to further reduce it. A possible source of thisstill elevated error rate, at least in some situations, has been suchreliance on using a language model to always perform the final pass toprovide the final identification of each word spoken in speech audio. Itshould be remembered that a good language model is usually one thatclosely models a language as that language is used correctly. Thus, partof the still elevated error rate may arise from the fact that a personmay make mistakes in vocabulary and/or syntax when speaking, while thelanguage model may tend to fight against correctly identifying thatperson’s words as actually spoken as it effectively attempts to enforceits model of what that person’s words should have been.

As illustrated by at least this one example, there can be situations inwhich it may be desirable to rely more on an acoustic model, than on alanguage model, to correctly identify spoken words. It has long beenrecognized that an acoustic model can be highly accurate in identifyingspoken words where the pronunciation of words is of sufficient clarity,and where the acoustic conditions associated with the reception of thosespoken words are sufficiently favorable (e.g., sufficiently free ofnoise). As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, thelongstanding practice of reliance on a language model to provide thefinal identification of words was largely influenced by a need toaccommodate less ideal conditions in which the pronunciation of wordsmay not be as clear and/or where the acoustic conditions may not be sofavorable. In such situations, gaps may occur in the reception of spokenwords, and on many of such occasions, a language model can compensatefor such instances of missing acoustic information.

To further improve upon the error rate of such typical two-stage use ofa combination of an acoustic model and a language model, someembodiments may dynamically vary the relative weighting assigned to eachof the acoustic model and the language model per-word based on thedegree of uncertainty in the per-grapheme probability distributionsoutput by the acoustic model for each word. Stated differently, it maybe that the probability distributions of graphemes that are output bythe acoustic model for a single word are analyzed to derive acorresponding degree of perplexity for each probability distribution.Such a degree of perplexity may serve as an indication of the degree towhich a probability distribution presents an indefinite indication ofwhich utterance occurred during a corresponding portion of speech audio.Where the degree of perplexity of probability distributions forgraphemes associated with a word are deemed to be lower than apredetermined threshold, then greater weight may be dynamically assignedto the identification of that word based on those probabilitydistributions such that the acoustic model is relied upon to identifythat word. However, where the degree of perplexity of such probabilitydistributions associated with a word are deemed to be higher than apre-determined threshold, then greater weight may be dynamicallyassigned to the identification of that word based on the language model.

In some embodiments, both of the acoustic model and the language modelmay always be utilized in combination for each spoken word, regardlessof whether the per-word determination is made in a manner that givesgreater weight to relying more on the acoustic model or to the languagemodel to identify a word. Thus, the beam searches associated with suchuse of a language model implemented with an n-gram corpus may always beperformed regardless of such dynamic per-word assignment of relativeweighting. In some of such embodiments, it may be that the probability(and/or another measure or statistic) associated with the wordidentified by the language model is used as an input to the dynamicper-word relative weighting in addition to the degree of perplexityderived for the probability distributions for the correspondinggraphemes.

Alternatively, in other embodiments, it may be that the language modelis not used to provide any input to the dynamic per-word relativeweighting. In such other embodiments, such a situation may provide theopportunity to entirely refrain from consuming processing and/or storageresources to perform beam searches associated with using the languagemodel if the results of the dynamic per-word relative weighting are suchthat the results of using the language model will not be used. In thisway, use of the language model may be made contingent on such dynamicper-word relative weighting.

Regarding the use of a language model as part of the speech-to-textprocessing operations, as will be readily recognized by those skilled inthe art, when using a language model based on a corpus of n-grams, it isgenerally accepted that a larger n-gram corpus is capable of achievinghigher accuracies in speech-to-text operations than a smaller one.However, as will also be familiar to those skilled in the art, eachincrease of one word in the quantity of words that may be included ineach n-gram can result in an exponential increase in the size of then-gram corpus. As a result, it has become commonplace to limit thequantity of words that may be included in each n-gram to 4, 5 or 6 wordsto avoid so overtaxing available processing and/or storage resources oftypical computing devices as to become impractical for use. To overcomesuch limitations, the processing and storage resources of multiple nodedevices may be employed in particular ways that make more efficient useof distributed processing to make the use of a larger n-gram corpus morepractical.

More specifically, in preparation for performing beam searches of arelatively large n-gram corpus of an n-gram language model, completecopies of such a relatively large n-gram corpus may be distributed amongthe multiple node devices such that each is caused to locally store thecomplete n-gram corpus. Proceeding in temporal order through probabilitydistributions of graphemes that may have been pronounced throughoutspeech segment, the control device may derive candidate sets of n-gramsto be searched for within the n-gram corpus to retrieve theircorresponding probabilities. As each such n-gram candidate set isderived, the control device may provide it to all of the node devices2300 to which the n-gram corpus has been provided to enable beamsearches for each of the different candidate n-grams to be searched for,at least partially in parallel.

As part of causing different ones of the n-grams to be searched for bydifferent ones of the node devices, a modulo calculation may be usedbased on identifiers assigned to each of the node devices to enable eachnode device to independently determine which one(s) of the n-gramswithin the n-gram candidate set will be searched for therein.Alternatively, the n-gram searches may be distributed among multipleexecution threads of processor(s) within a single device (e.g., thecontrol device or a single node device). As each of the node devicescompletes the beam search(es) for its corresponding one(s) of thecandidate n-grams, indications of the relative probabilities ofoccurrence for each n-gram may be provided to the control device toenable the control device to identify the next word that was most likelyspoken in the speech segment, and accordingly, to identify the next wordto be added to the transcript of what was spoken in the speech audio.Upon completion of the transcript, the transcript may be stored by thecontrol device within the one or more storage devices as a text data setthat may be subsequently retrieved and analyzed to derive variousinsights therefrom, as previously discussed.

In a further effort to make the use of a relatively large n-gram corpusmore practical, the corpus data sets may be generated to employ atwo-dimensional (2D) array data structure, instead of the moreconventional ASCII text file data structure of the widely known and used“ARPA” text format originally introduced by Doug B. Paul of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Avoiding the use of such arelatively unstructured text format obviates the need to use textparsing routines that can greatly decrease the speed of access toindividual n-grams, and/or individual words within individual n-grams.In this way, the speed with which the n-gram corpus is able to begenerated, put through deduplication, and used in beam searches may begreatly increased.

Still further, in deriving probabilities for the occurrence of eachn-gram, a novel technique may be used for deriving a backoff value thatis relatively simple to perform, and that is better suited to the largern-gram corpuses that may be made practical to use by way of the variousapproaches described herein.

Regardless of the exact manner in which each word spoken in speech audiois identified through use of an acoustic model and/or through the use ofa language model, and regardless of the size and/or format of the n-gramcorpus that may be used, the length of transcript(s) that are generatedfrom speech audio may advantageously or adversely affect automated textanalyses that may be subsequently performed in post-processing (e.g.,analyses to identify topics, to identify sentiments of topics, and/or toidentify other related pieces of speech audio and/or transcriptsgenerated therefrom). From experimentation and observation, it has beenfound that, generally, many forms of automated text analyses are able tobe more successfully used with longer transcripts.

More specifically, it has been found that shorter transcripts tend tocause an overemphasis on the more frequently used words in a language,even after removal of noncontent stopwords, with the result thatanalyses to derive topics and/or other insights of a transcript tend toproduce less useful results. To counteract this, in some embodiments,all of the text of speech audio on which speech-to-text processing hasbeen performed may be stored and/or otherwise handled as a singletranscript, thereby increasing the likelihood of generating longertranscripts. However, where the speech audio is sufficiently long as toinclude multiple presentations and/or conversations on unrelatedsubjects, automated text analyses performed on a single transcriptencompassing such lengthy and varied speech audio may also produce lessuseful results. Thus, in some embodiments, rules concerning lengths oftranscripts and/or acoustic features such as relatively lengthy pausesmay be used to bring about the generation of lengths and/or quantitiesof transcripts for each piece of speech audio that are more amenable toproviding useful results from automated text analyses.

Turning to the text analytics post-processing operations, the resultingone or more transcripts of the speech audio may be provided to one ormore text analyzers to derive, based on such factors as the frequencywith which each word was spoken, such insights as topic(s) spoken about,relative importance of topics, sentiments expressed concerning eachtopic, etc. It may be that each such stored transcript(s) may beaccompanied in storage with metadata indicative of such insights.Alternatively or additionally, it may be that such insights are used toidentify other transcript(s) generated from other pieces of speech audiothat are deemed to be related.

In embodiments in which a distributed processing system is used thatincludes multiple node devices, various one(s) of the pre-processing,text-to-speech processing and/or post-processing operations within theframework may be performed in a manner that is distributed across thosemultiple node devices to improve the efficiency with which thoseoperations are able to be performed. As will be explained in greaterdetail, such improvements in efficiency may also enable improvements inthe handling of data such that greater use may be made of contextualinformation to provide improved results.

By way of example, each of the different pause detection techniques maybe performed within a separate one of the node devices, at leastpartially in parallel, such that a different one of the correspondingset of likely sentence pauses may be independently derived within eachsuch node device.

Also by way of example, multiple instances of the feature detector maybe executed across the multiple node devices, and the speech segmentsmay be distributed thereamong to enable speech detection to be performedwith multiple ones of the speech segments at least partially inparallel. Further, along with the multiple instances of the featuredetector, multiple instances of the acoustic model may be instantiatedacross the multiple node devices, thereby enabling the feature vectorsderived from a speech segment by an instance of the feature detectorwithin a node device to be directly provided to the correspondinginstance of the acoustic model within the node device to enable thederivation of the set of probability distributions that correspond tothat speech segment.

Also by way of example, multiple copies of the n-gram corpus may bedistributed among the multiple node devices to enable each beam searchacross multiple n-grams for each next word in a sentence to be performedin a distributed manner without need of communication among the nodedevices.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein,portions of the detailed description that follows may be presented interms of program procedures executed by a processor of a machine or ofmultiple networked machines. These procedural descriptions andrepresentations are used by those skilled in the art to most effectivelyconvey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Aprocedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistentsequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations arethose requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical,magnetic or optical communications capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to what iscommunicated as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms,numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these andsimilar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physicalquantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms, such asadding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. However, no such capability ofa human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments.Rather, these operations are machine operations. Useful machines forperforming operations of various embodiments include machinesselectively activated or configured by a routine stored within that iswritten in accordance with the teachings herein, and/or includeapparatus specially constructed for the required purpose. Variousembodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performing theseoperations. These apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purpose or may include a general purpose computer. The requiredstructure for a variety of these machines will appear from thedescription given.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives within the scope of the claims.

Systems depicted in some of the figures may be provided in variousconfigurations. In some embodiments, the systems may be configured as adistributed system where one or more components of the system aredistributed across one or more networks in a cloud computing systemand/or a fog computing system.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that provides an illustration of the hardwarecomponents of a data transmission network 100, according to embodimentsof the present technology. Data transmission network 100 is aspecialized computer system that may be used for processing largeamounts of data where a large number of computer processing cycles arerequired.

Data transmission network 100 may also include computing environment114. Computing environment 114 may be a specialized computer or othermachine that processes the data received within the data transmissionnetwork 100. Data transmission network 100 also includes one or morenetwork devices 102. Network devices 102 may include client devices thatattempt to communicate with computing environment 114. For example,network devices 102 may send data to the computing environment 114 to beprocessed, may send signals to the computing environment 114 to controldifferent aspects of the computing environment or the data it isprocessing, among other reasons. Network devices 102 may interact withthe computing environment 114 through a number of ways, such as, forexample, over one or more networks 108. As shown in FIG. 1 , computingenvironment 114 may include one or more other systems. For example,computing environment 114 may include a database system 118 and/or acommunications grid 120.

In other embodiments, network devices may provide a large amount ofdata, either all at once or streaming over a period of time (e.g., usingevent stream processing (ESP), described further with respect to FIGS.8-10 ), to the computing environment 114 via networks 108. For example,network devices 102 may include network computers, sensors, databases,or other devices that may transmit or otherwise provide data tocomputing environment 114. For example, network devices may includelocal area network devices, such as routers, hubs, switches, or othercomputer networking devices. These devices may provide a variety ofstored or generated data, such as network data or data specific to thenetwork devices themselves. Network devices may also include sensorsthat monitor their environment or other devices to collect dataregarding that environment or those devices, and such network devicesmay provide data they collect over time. Network devices may alsoinclude devices within the internet of things, such as devices within ahome automation network. Some of these devices may be referred to asedge devices, and may involve edge computing circuitry. Data may betransmitted by network devices directly to computing environment 114 orto network-attached data stores, such as network-attached data stores110 for storage so that the data may be retrieved later by the computingenvironment 114 or other portions of data transmission network 100.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or morenetwork-attached data stores 110. Network-attached data stores 110 areused to store data to be processed by the computing environment 114 aswell as any intermediate or final data generated by the computing systemin non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, theconfiguration of the computing environment 114 allows its operations tobe performed such that intermediate and final data results can be storedsolely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement thatintermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types ofmemory (e.g., disk). This can be useful in certain situations, such aswhen the computing environment 114 receives ad hoc queries from a userand when responses, which are generated by processing large amounts ofdata, need to be generated on-the-fly. In this nonlimiting situation,the computing environment 114 may be configured to retain the processedinformation within memory so that responses can be generated for theuser at different levels of detail as well as allow a user tointeractively query against this information.

Network-attached data stores may store a variety of different types ofdata organized in a variety of different ways and from a variety ofdifferent sources. For example, network-attached data storage mayinclude storage other than primary storage located within computingenvironment 114 that is directly accessible by processors locatedtherein. Network-attached data storage may include secondary, tertiaryor auxiliary storage, such as large hard drives, servers, virtualmemory, among other types. Storage devices may include portable ornon-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various othermediums capable of storing, containing data. A machine-readable storagemedium or computer-readable storage medium may include a non-transitorymedium in which data can be stored and that does not include carrierwaves and/or transitory electronic signals. Examples of a non-transitorymedium may include, for example, a magnetic disk or tape, opticalstorage media such as compact disk or digital versatile disk, flashmemory, memory or memory devices. A computer-program product may includecode and/or machine-executable instructions that may represent aprocedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine,a module, a software package, a class, or any combination ofinstructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment maybe coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passingand/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, amongothers. Furthermore, the data stores may hold a variety of differenttypes of data. For example, network-attached data stores 110 may holdunstructured (e.g., raw) data, such as manufacturing data (e.g., adatabase containing records identifying products being manufactured withparameter data for each product, such as colors and models) or productsales databases (e.g., a database containing individual data recordsidentifying details of individual product sales).

The unstructured data may be presented to the computing environment 114in different forms such as a flat file or a conglomerate of datarecords, and may have data values and accompanying time stamps. Thecomputing environment 114 may be used to analyze the unstructured datain a variety of ways to determine the best way to structure (e.g.,hierarchically) that data, such that the structured data is tailored toa type of further analysis that a user wishes to perform on the data.For example, after being processed, the unstructured time stamped datamay be aggregated by time (e.g., into daily time period units) togenerate time series data and/or structured hierarchically according toone or more dimensions (e.g., parameters, attributes, and/or variables).For example, data may be stored in a hierarchical data structure, suchas a ROLAP OR MOLAP database, or may be stored in another tabular form,such as in a flat-hierarchy form.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more server farms106. Computing environment 114 may route select communications or datato the one or more sever farms 106 or one or more servers within theserver farms. Server farms 106 can be configured to provide informationin a predetermined manner. For example, server farms 106 may access datato transmit in response to a communication. Server farms 106 may beseparately housed from each other device within data transmissionnetwork 100, such as computing environment 114, and/or may be part of adevice or system.

Server farms 106 may host a variety of different types of dataprocessing as part of data transmission network 100. Server farms 106may receive a variety of different data from network devices, fromcomputing environment 114, from cloud network 116, or from othersources. The data may have been obtained or collected from one or moresensors, as inputs from a control database, or may have been received asinputs from an external system or device. Server farms 106 may assist inprocessing the data by turning raw data into processed data based on oneor more rules implemented by the server farms. For example, sensor datamay be analyzed to determine changes in an environment over time or inreal-time.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more cloudnetworks 116. Cloud network 116 may include a cloud infrastructuresystem that provides cloud services. In certain embodiments, servicesprovided by the cloud network 116 may include a host of services thatare made available to users of the cloud infrastructure system ondemand. Cloud network 116 is shown in FIG. 1 as being connected tocomputing environment 114 (and therefore having computing environment114 as its client or user), but cloud network 116 may be connected to orutilized by any of the devices in FIG. 1 . Services provided by thecloud network can dynamically scale to meet the needs of its users. Thecloud network 116 may include one or more computers, servers, and/orsystems. In some embodiments, the computers, servers, and/or systemsthat make up the cloud network 116 are different from the user’s ownon-premises computers, servers, and/or systems. For example, the cloudnetwork 116 may host an application, and a user may, via a communicationnetwork such as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

While each device, server and system in FIG. 1 is shown as a singledevice, it will be appreciated that multiple devices may instead beused. For example, a set of network devices can be used to transmitvarious communications from a single user, or remote server 140 mayinclude a server stack. As another example, data may be processed aspart of computing environment 114.

Each communication within data transmission network 100 (e.g., betweenclient devices, between servers 106 and computing environment 114 orbetween a server and a device) may occur over one or more networks 108.Networks 108 may include one or more of a variety of different types ofnetworks, including a wireless network, a wired network, or acombination of a wired and wireless network. Examples of suitablenetworks include the Internet, a personal area network, a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN). A wireless network may include a wireless interface orcombination of wireless interfaces. As an example, a network in the oneor more networks 108 may include a short-range communication channel,such as a BLUETOOTH® communication channel or a BLUETOOTH® Low Energycommunication channel. A wired network may include a wired interface.The wired and/or wireless networks may be implemented using routers,access points, bridges, gateways, or the like, to connect devices in thenetwork 114, as will be further described with respect to FIG. 2 . Theone or more networks 108 can be incorporated entirely within or caninclude an intranet, an extranet, or a combination thereof. In oneembodiment, communications between two or more systems and/or devicescan be achieved by a secure communications protocol, such as securesockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS). In addition, dataand/or transactional details may be encrypted.

Some aspects may utilize the Internet of Things (IoT), where things(e.g., machines, devices, phones, sensors) can be connected to networksand the data from these things can be collected and processed within thethings and/or external to the things. For example, the IoT can includesensors in many different devices, and high value analytics can beapplied to identify hidden relationships and drive increasedefficiencies. This can apply to both big data analytics and real-time(e.g., ESP) analytics. This will be described further below with respectto FIG. 2 .

As noted, computing environment 114 may include a communications grid120 and a transmission network database system 118. Communications grid120 may be a grid-based computing system for processing large amounts ofdata. The transmission network database system 118 may be for managing,storing, and retrieving large amounts of data that are distributed toand stored in the one or more network-attached data stores 110 or otherdata stores that reside at different locations within the transmissionnetwork database system 118. The compute nodes in the grid-basedcomputing system 120 and the transmission network database system 118may share the same processor hardware, such as processors that arelocated within computing environment 114.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set ofdevices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via anetwork, according to embodiments of the present technology. As noted,each communication within data transmission network 100 may occur overone or more networks. System 200 includes a network device 204configured to communicate with a variety of types of client devices, forexample client devices 230, over a variety of types of communicationchannels.

As shown in FIG. 2 , network device 204 can transmit a communicationover a network (e.g., a cellular network via a base station 210). Thecommunication can be routed to another network device, such as networkdevices 205-209, via base station 210. The communication can also berouted to computing environment 214 via base station 210. For example,network device 204 may collect data either from its surroundingenvironment or from other network devices (such as network devices205-209) and transmit that data to computing environment 214.

Although network devices 204-209 are shown in FIG. 2 as a mobile phone,laptop computer, tablet computer, temperature sensor, motion sensor, andaudio sensor respectively, the network devices may be or include sensorsthat are sensitive to detecting aspects of their environment. Forexample, the network devices may include sensors such as water sensors,power sensors, electrical current sensors, chemical sensors, opticalsensors, pressure sensors, geographic or position sensors (e.g., GPS),velocity sensors, acceleration sensors, flow rate sensors, among others.Examples of characteristics that may be sensed include force, torque,load, strain, position, temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemicalproperties, resistance, electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance,proximity, acoustics, moisture, distance, speed, vibrations,acceleration, electrical potential, and electrical current, amongothers. The sensors may be mounted to various components used as part ofa variety of different types of systems (e.g., an oil drillingoperation). The network devices may detect and record data related tothe environment that it monitors, and transmit that data to computingenvironment 214.

As noted, one type of system that may include various sensors thatcollect data to be processed and/or transmitted to a computingenvironment according to certain embodiments includes an oil drillingsystem. For example, the one or more drilling operation sensors mayinclude surface sensors that measure a hook load, a fluid rate, atemperature and a density in and out of the wellbore, a standpipepressure, a surface torque, a rotation speed of a drill pipe, a rate ofpenetration, a mechanical specific energy, etc. and downhole sensorsthat measure a rotation speed of a bit, fluid densities, downholetorque, downhole vibration (axial, tangential, lateral), a weightapplied at a drill bit, an annular pressure, a differential pressure, anazimuth, an inclination, a dog leg severity, a measured depth, avertical depth, a downhole temperature, etc. Besides the raw datacollected directly by the sensors, other data may include parameterseither developed by the sensors or assigned to the system by a client orother controlling device. For example, one or more drilling operationcontrol parameters may control settings such as a mud motor speed toflow ratio, a bit diameter, a predicted formation top, seismic data,weather data, etc. Other data may be generated using physical modelssuch as an earth model, a weather model, a seismic model, a bottom holeassembly model, a well plan model, an annular friction model, etc. Inaddition to sensor and control settings, predicted outputs, of forexample, the rate of penetration, mechanical specific energy, hook load,flow in fluid rate, flow out fluid rate, pump pressure, surface torque,rotation speed of the drill pipe, annular pressure, annular frictionpressure, annular temperature, equivalent circulating density, etc. mayalso be stored in the data warehouse.

In another example, another type of system that may include varioussensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to acomputing environment according to certain embodiments includes a homeautomation or similar automated network in a different environment, suchas an office space, school, public space, sports venue, or a variety ofother locations. Network devices in such an automated network mayinclude network devices that allow a user to access, control, and/orconfigure various home appliances located within the user’s home (e.g.,a television, radio, light, fan, humidifier, sensor, microwave, iron,and/or the like), or outside of the user’s home (e.g., exterior motionsensors, exterior lighting, garage door openers, sprinkler systems, orthe like). For example, network device 102 may include a home automationswitch that may be coupled with a home appliance. In another embodiment,a network device can allow a user to access, control, and/or configuredevices, such as office-related devices (e.g., copy machine, printer, orfax machine), audio and/or video related devices (e.g., a receiver, aspeaker, a projector, a DVD player, or a television), media-playbackdevices (e.g., a compact disc player, a CD player, or the like),computing devices (e.g., a home computer, a laptop computer, a tablet, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a computing device, or a wearabledevice), lighting devices (e.g., a lamp or recessed lighting), devicesassociated with a security system, devices associated with an alarmsystem, devices that can be operated in an automobile (e.g., radiodevices, navigation devices), and/or the like. Data may be collectedfrom such various sensors in raw form, or data may be processed by thesensors to create parameters or other data either developed by thesensors based on the raw data or assigned to the system by a client orother controlling device.

In another example, another type of system that may include varioussensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to acomputing environment according to certain embodiments includes a poweror energy grid. A variety of different network devices may be includedin an energy grid, such as various devices within one or more powerplants, energy farms (e.g., wind farm, solar farm, among others) energystorage facilities, factories, homes and businesses of consumers, amongothers. One or more of such devices may include one or more sensors thatdetect energy gain or loss, electrical input or output or loss, and avariety of other efficiencies. These sensors may collect data to informusers of how the energy grid, and individual devices within the grid,may be functioning and how they may be made more efficient.

Network device sensors may also perform processing on data it collectsbefore transmitting the data to the computing environment 114, or beforedeciding whether to transmit data to the computing environment 114. Forexample, network devices may determine whether data collected meetscertain rules, for example by comparing data or values calculated fromthe data and comparing that data to one or more thresholds. The networkdevice may use this data and/or comparisons to determine if the datashould be transmitted to the computing environment 214 for further useor processing.

Computing environment 214 may include machines 220 and 240. Althoughcomputing environment 214 is shown in FIG. 2 as having two machines, 220and 240, computing environment 214 may have only one machine or may havemore than two machines. The machines that make up computing environment214 may include specialized computers, servers, or other machines thatare configured to individually and/or collectively process large amountsof data. The computing environment 214 may also include storage devicesthat include one or more databases of structured data, such as dataorganized in one or more hierarchies, or unstructured data. Thedatabases may communicate with the processing devices within computingenvironment 214 to distribute data to them. Since network devices maytransmit data to computing environment 214, that data may be received bythe computing environment 214 and subsequently stored within thosestorage devices. Data used by computing environment 214 may also bestored in data stores 235, which may also be a part of or connected tocomputing environment 214.

Computing environment 214 can communicate with various devices via oneor more routers 225 or other inter-network or intra-network connectioncomponents. For example, computing environment 214 may communicate withdevices 230 via one or more routers 225. Computing environment 214 maycollect, analyze and/or store data from or pertaining to communications,client device operations, client rules, and/or user-associated actionsstored at one or more data stores 235. Such data may influencecommunication routing to the devices within computing environment 214,how data is stored or processed within computing environment 214, amongother actions.

Notably, various other devices can further be used to influencecommunication routing and/or processing between devices within computingenvironment 214 and with devices outside of computing environment 214.For example, as shown in FIG. 2 , computing environment 214 may includea web server 240. Thus, computing environment 214 can retrieve data ofinterest, such as client information (e.g., product information, clientrules, etc.), technical product details, news, current or predictedweather, and so on.

In addition to computing environment 214 collecting data (e.g., asreceived from network devices, such as sensors, and client devices orother sources) to be processed as part of a big data analytics project,it may also receive data in real time as part of a streaming analyticsenvironment. As noted, data may be collected using a variety of sourcesas communicated via different kinds of networks or locally. Such datamay be received on a real-time streaming basis. For example, networkdevices may receive data periodically from network device sensors as thesensors continuously sense, monitor and track changes in theirenvironments. Devices within computing environment 214 may also performpre-analysis on data it receives to determine if the data receivedshould be processed as part of an ongoing project. The data received andcollected by computing environment 214, no matter what the source ormethod or timing of receipt, may be processed over a period of time fora client to determine results data based on the client’s needs andrules.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of acommunications protocol system, according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. More specifically, FIG. 3 identifies operation of acomputing environment in an Open Systems Interaction model thatcorresponds to various connection components. The model 300 shows, forexample, how a computing environment, such as computing environment 314(or computing environment 214 in FIG. 2 ) may communicate with otherdevices in its network, and control how communications between thecomputing environment and other devices are executed and under whatconditions.

The model can include layers 301-307. The layers are arranged in astack. Each layer in the stack serves the layer one level higher than it(except for the application layer, which is the highest layer), and isserved by the layer one level below it (except for the physical layer,which is the lowest layer). The physical layer is the lowest layerbecause it receives and transmits raw bites of data, and is the farthestlayer from the user in a communications system. On the other hand, theapplication layer is the highest layer because it interacts directlywith a software application.

As noted, the model includes a physical layer 301. Physical layer 301represents physical communication, and can define parameters of thatphysical communication. For example, such physical communication maycome in the form of electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signals.Physical layer 301 also defines protocols that may controlcommunications within a data transmission network.

Link layer 302 defines links and mechanisms used to transmit (i.e.,move) data across a network. The link layer 302 manages node-to-nodecommunications, such as within a grid computing environment. Link layer302 can detect and correct errors (e.g., transmission errors in thephysical layer 301). Link layer 302 can also include a media accesscontrol (MAC) layer and logical link control (LLC) layer.

Network layer 303 defines the protocol for routing within a network. Inother words, the network layer coordinates transferring data acrossnodes in a same network (e.g., such as a grid computing environment).Network layer 303 can also define the processes used to structure localaddressing within the network.

Transport layer 304 can manage the transmission of data and the qualityof the transmission and/or receipt of that data. Transport layer 304 canprovide a protocol for transferring data, such as, for example, aTransmission Control Protocol (TCP). Transport layer 304 can assembleand disassemble data frames for transmission. The transport layer canalso detect transmission errors occurring in the layers below it.

Session layer 305 can establish, maintain, and manage communicationconnections between devices on a network. In other words, the sessionlayer controls the dialogues or nature of communications between networkdevices on the network. The session layer may also establishcheckpointing, adjournment, termination, and restart procedures.

Presentation layer 306 can provide translation for communicationsbetween the application and network layers. In other words, this layermay encrypt, decrypt and/or format data based on data types and/orencodings known to be accepted by an application or network layer.

Application layer 307 interacts directly with software applications andend users, and manages communications between them. Application layer307 can identify destinations, local resource states or availabilityand/or communication content or formatting using the applications.

Intra-network connection components 321 and 322 are shown to operate inlower levels, such as physical layer 301 and link layer 302,respectively. For example, a hub can operate in the physical layer, aswitch can operate in the link layer, and a router can operate in thenetwork layer. Inter-network connection components 323 and 328 are shownto operate on higher levels, such as layers 303-307. For example,routers can operate in the network layer and network devices can operatein the transport, session, presentation, and application layers.

As noted, a computing environment 314 can interact with and/or operateon, in various embodiments, one, more, all or any of the various layers.For example, computing environment 314 can interact with a hub (e.g.,via the link layer) so as to adjust which devices the hub communicateswith. The physical layer may be served by the link layer, so it mayimplement such data from the link layer. For example, the computingenvironment 314 may control which devices it will receive data from. Forexample, if the computing environment 314 knows that a certain networkdevice has turned off, broken, or otherwise become unavailable orunreliable, the computing environment 314 may instruct the hub toprevent any data from being transmitted to the computing environment 314from that network device. Such a process may be beneficial to avoidreceiving data that is inaccurate or that has been influenced by anuncontrolled environment. As another example, computing environment 314can communicate with a bridge, switch, router or gateway and influencewhich device within the system (e.g., system 200) the component selectsas a destination. In some embodiments, computing environment 314 caninteract with various layers by exchanging communications with equipmentoperating on a particular layer by routing or modifying existingcommunications. In another embodiment, such as in a grid computingenvironment, a node may determine how data within the environment shouldbe routed (e.g., which node should receive certain data) based oncertain parameters or information provided by other layers within themodel.

As noted, the computing environment 314 may be a part of acommunications grid environment, the communications of which may beimplemented as shown in the protocol of FIG. 3 . For example, referringback to FIG. 2 , one or more of machines 220 and 240 may be part of acommunications grid computing environment. A gridded computingenvironment may be employed in a distributed system with non-interactiveworkloads where data resides in memory on the machines, or computenodes. In such an environment, analytic code, instead of a databasemanagement system, controls the processing performed by the nodes. Datais co-located by pre-distributing it to the grid nodes, and the analyticcode on each node loads the local data into memory. Each node may beassigned a particular task such as a portion of a processing project, orto organize or control other nodes within the grid.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system 400 includinga variety of control and worker nodes, according to embodiments of thepresent technology. Communications grid computing system 400 includesthree control nodes and one or more worker nodes. Communications gridcomputing system 400 includes control nodes 402, 404, and 406. Thecontrol nodes are communicatively connected via communication paths 451,453, and 455. Therefore, the control nodes may transmit information(e.g., related to the communications grid or notifications), to andreceive information from each other. Although communications gridcomputing system 400 is shown in FIG. 4 as including three controlnodes, the communications grid may include more or less than threecontrol nodes.

Communications grid computing system (or just “communications grid”) 400also includes one or more worker nodes. Shown in FIG. 4 are six workernodes 410-420. Although FIG. 4 shows six worker nodes, a communicationsgrid according to embodiments of the present technology may include moreor less than six worker nodes. The number of worker nodes included in acommunications grid may be dependent upon how large the project or dataset is being processed by the communications grid, the capacity of eachworker node, the time designated for the communications grid to completethe project, among others. Each worker node within the communicationsgrid 400 may be connected (wired or wirelessly, and directly orindirectly) to control nodes 402-406. Therefore, each worker node mayreceive information from the control nodes (e.g., an instruction toperform work on a project) and may transmit information to the controlnodes (e.g., a result from work performed on a project). Furthermore,worker nodes may communicate with each other (either directly orindirectly). For example, worker nodes may transmit data between eachother related to a job being performed or an individual task within ajob being performed by that worker node. However, in certainembodiments, worker nodes may not, for example, be connected(communicatively or otherwise) to certain other worker nodes. In anembodiment, worker nodes may only be able to communicate with thecontrol node that controls it, and may not be able to communicate withother worker nodes in the communications grid, whether they are otherworker nodes controlled by the control node that controls the workernode, or worker nodes that are controlled by other control nodes in thecommunications grid.

A control node may connect with an external device with which thecontrol node may communicate (e.g., a grid user, such as a server orcomputer, may connect to a controller of the grid). For example, aserver or computer may connect to control nodes and may transmit aproject or job to the node. The project may include a data set. The dataset may be of any size. Once the control node receives such a projectincluding a large data set, the control node may distribute the data setor projects related to the data set to be performed by worker nodes.Alternatively, for a project including a large data set, the data setmay be received or stored by a machine other than a control node (e.g.,a HADOOP® standard-compliant data node employing the HADOOP® DistributedFile System, or HDFS).

Control nodes may maintain knowledge of the status of the nodes in thegrid (i.e., grid status information), accept work requests from clients,subdivide the work across worker nodes, and coordinate the worker nodes,among other responsibilities. Worker nodes may accept work requests froma control node and provide the control node with results of the workperformed by the worker node. A grid may be started from a single node(e.g., a machine, computer, server, etc.). This first node may beassigned or may start as the primary control node that will control anyadditional nodes that enter the grid.

When a project is submitted for execution (e.g., by a client or acontroller of the grid) it may be assigned to a set of nodes. After thenodes are assigned to a project, a data structure (i.e., a communicator)may be created. The communicator may be used by the project forinformation to be shared between the project codes running on each node.A communication handle may be created on each node. A handle, forexample, is a reference to the communicator that is valid within asingle process on a single node, and the handle may be used whenrequesting communications between nodes.

A control node, such as control node 402, may be designated as theprimary control node. A server, computer or other external device mayconnect to the primary control node. Once the control node receives aproject, the primary control node may distribute portions of the projectto its worker nodes for execution. For example, when a project isinitiated on communications grid 400, primary control node 402 controlsthe work to be performed for the project in order to complete theproject as requested or instructed. The primary control node maydistribute work to the worker nodes based on various factors, such aswhich subsets or portions of projects may be completed most efficientlyand in the correct amount of time. For example, a worker node mayperform analysis on a portion of data that is already local (e.g.,stored on) the worker node. The primary control node also coordinatesand processes the results of the work performed by each worker nodeafter each worker node executes and completes its job. For example, theprimary control node may receive a result from one or more worker nodes,and the control node may organize (e.g., collect and assemble) theresults received and compile them to produce a complete result for theproject received from the end user.

Any remaining control nodes, such as control nodes 404 and 406, may beassigned as backup control nodes for the project. In an embodiment,backup control nodes may not control any portion of the project.Instead, backup control nodes may serve as a backup for the primarycontrol node and take over as primary control node if the primarycontrol node were to fail. If a communications grid were to include onlya single control node, and the control node were to fail (e.g., thecontrol node is shut off or breaks) then the communications grid as awhole may fail and any project or job being run on the communicationsgrid may fail and may not complete. While the project may be run again,such a failure may cause a delay (severe delay in some cases, such asovernight delay) in completion of the project. Therefore, a grid withmultiple control nodes, including a backup control node, may bebeneficial.

To add another node or machine to the grid, the primary control node mayopen a pair of listening sockets, for example. A socket may be used toaccept work requests from clients, and the second socket may be used toaccept connections from other grid nodes. The primary control node maybe provided with a list of other nodes (e.g., other machines, computers,servers) that will participate in the grid, and the role that each nodewill fill in the grid. Upon startup of the primary control node (e.g.,the first node on the grid), the primary control node may use a networkprotocol to start the server process on every other node in the grid.Command line parameters, for example, may inform each node of one ormore pieces of information, such as: the role that the node will have inthe grid, the host name of the primary control node, the port number onwhich the primary control node is accepting connections from peer nodes,among others. The information may also be provided in a configurationfile, transmitted over a secure shell tunnel, recovered from aconfiguration server, among others. While the other machines in the gridmay not initially know about the configuration of the grid, thatinformation may also be sent to each other node by the primary controlnode. Updates of the grid information may also be subsequently sent tothose nodes.

For any control node other than the primary control node added to thegrid, the control node may open three sockets. The first socket mayaccept work requests from clients, the second socket may acceptconnections from other grid members, and the third socket may connect(e.g., permanently) to the primary control node. When a control node(e.g., primary control node) receives a connection from another controlnode, it first checks to see if the peer node is in the list ofconfigured nodes in the grid. If it is not on the list, the control nodemay clear the connection. If it is on the list, it may then attempt toauthenticate the connection. If authentication is successful, theauthenticating node may transmit information to its peer, such as theport number on which a node is listening for connections, the host nameof the node, information about how to authenticate the node, among otherinformation. When a node, such as the new control node, receivesinformation about another active node, it will check to see if italready has a connection to that other node. If it does not have aconnection to that node, it may then establish a connection to thatcontrol node.

Any worker node added to the grid may establish a connection to theprimary control node and any other control nodes on the grid. Afterestablishing the connection, it may authenticate itself to the grid(e.g., any control nodes, including both primary and backup, or a serveror user controlling the grid). After successful authentication, theworker node may accept configuration information from the control node.

When a node joins a communications grid (e.g., when the node is poweredon or connected to an existing node on the grid or both), the node isassigned (e.g., by an operating system of the grid) a universally uniqueidentifier (UUID). This unique identifier may help other nodes andexternal entities (devices, users, etc.) to identify the node anddistinguish it from other nodes. When a node is connected to the grid,the node may share its unique identifier with the other nodes in thegrid. Since each node may share its unique identifier, each node mayknow the unique identifier of every other node on the grid. Uniqueidentifiers may also designate a hierarchy of each of the nodes (e.g.,backup control nodes) within the grid. For example, the uniqueidentifiers of each of the backup control nodes may be stored in a listof backup control nodes to indicate an order in which the backup controlnodes will take over for a failed primary control node to become a newprimary control node. However, a hierarchy of nodes may also bedetermined using methods other than using the unique identifiers of thenodes. For example, the hierarchy may be predetermined, or may beassigned based on other predetermined factors.

The grid may add new machines at any time (e.g., initiated from anycontrol node). Upon adding a new node to the grid, the control node mayfirst add the new node to its table of grid nodes. The control node mayalso then notify every other control node about the new node. The nodesreceiving the notification may acknowledge that they have updated theirconfiguration information.

Primary control node 402 may, for example, transmit one or morecommunications to backup control nodes 404 and 406 (and, for example, toother control or worker nodes within the communications grid). Suchcommunications may be sent periodically, at fixed time intervals,between known fixed stages of the project’s execution, among otherprotocols. The communications transmitted by primary control node 402may be of varied types and may include a variety of types ofinformation. For example, primary control node 402 may transmitsnapshots (e.g., status information) of the communications grid so thatbackup control node 404 always has a recent snapshot of thecommunications grid. The snapshot or grid status may include, forexample, the structure of the grid (including, for example, the workernodes in the grid, unique identifiers of the nodes, or theirrelationships with the primary control node) and the status of a project(including, for example, the status of each worker node’s portion of theproject). The snapshot may also include analysis or results receivedfrom worker nodes in the communications grid. The backup control nodesmay receive and store the backup data received from the primary controlnode. The backup control nodes may transmit a request for such asnapshot (or other information) from the primary control node, or theprimary control node may send such information periodically to thebackup control nodes.

As noted, the backup data may allow the backup control node to take overas primary control node if the primary control node fails withoutrequiring the grid to start the project over from scratch. If theprimary control node fails, the backup control node that will take overas primary control node may retrieve the most recent version of thesnapshot received from the primary control node and use the snapshot tocontinue the project from the stage of the project indicated by thebackup data. This may prevent failure of the project as a whole.

A backup control node may use various methods to determine that theprimary control node has failed. In one example of such a method, theprimary control node may transmit (e.g., periodically) a communicationto the backup control node that indicates that the primary control nodeis working and has not failed, such as a heartbeat communication. Thebackup control node may determine that the primary control node hasfailed if the backup control node has not received a heartbeatcommunication for a certain predetermined period of time. Alternatively,a backup control node may also receive a communication from the primarycontrol node itself (before it failed) or from a worker node that theprimary control node has failed, for example because the primary controlnode has failed to communicate with the worker node.

Different methods may be performed to determine which backup controlnode of a set of backup control nodes (e.g., backup control nodes 404and 406) will take over for failed primary control node 402 and becomethe new primary control node. For example, the new primary control nodemay be chosen based on a ranking or “hierarchy” of backup control nodesbased on their unique identifiers. In an alternative embodiment, abackup control node may be assigned to be the new primary control nodeby another device in the communications grid or from an external device(e.g., a system infrastructure or an end user, such as a server orcomputer, controlling the communications grid). In another alternativeembodiment, the backup control node that takes over as the new primarycontrol node may be designated based on bandwidth or other statisticsabout the communications grid.

A worker node within the communications grid may also fail. If a workernode fails, work being performed by the failed worker node may beredistributed amongst the operational worker nodes. In an alternativeembodiment, the primary control node may transmit a communication toeach of the operable worker nodes still on the communications grid thateach of the worker nodes should purposefully fail also. After each ofthe worker nodes fail, they may each retrieve their most recent savedcheckpoint of their status and restart the project from that checkpointto minimize lost progress on the project being executed.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process 500 foradjusting a communications grid or a work project in a communicationsgrid after a failure of a node, according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. The process may include, for example, receiving grid statusinformation including a project status of a portion of a project beingexecuted by a node in the communications grid, as described in operation502. For example, a control node (e.g., a backup control node connectedto a primary control node and a worker node on a communications grid)may receive grid status information, where the grid status informationincludes a project status of the primary control node or a projectstatus of the worker node. The project status of the primary controlnode and the project status of the worker node may include a status ofone or more portions of a project being executed by the primary andworker nodes in the communications grid. The process may also includestoring the grid status information, as described in operation 504. Forexample, a control node (e.g., a backup control node) may store thereceived grid status information locally within the control node.Alternatively, the grid status information may be sent to another devicefor storage where the control node may have access to the information.

The process may also include receiving a failure communicationcorresponding to a node in the communications grid in operation 506. Forexample, a node may receive a failure communication including anindication that the primary control node has failed, prompting a backupcontrol node to take over for the primary control node. In analternative embodiment, a node may receive a failure that a worker nodehas failed, prompting a control node to reassign the work beingperformed by the worker node. The process may also include reassigning anode or a portion of the project being executed by the failed node, asdescribed in operation 508. For example, a control node may designatethe backup control node as a new primary control node based on thefailure communication upon receiving the failure communication. If thefailed node is a worker node, a control node may identify a projectstatus of the failed worker node using the snapshot of thecommunications grid, where the project status of the failed worker nodeincludes a status of a portion of the project being executed by thefailed worker node at the failure time.

The process may also include receiving updated grid status informationbased on the reassignment, as described in operation 510, andtransmitting a set of instructions based on the updated grid statusinformation to one or more nodes in the communications grid, asdescribed in operation 512. The updated grid status information mayinclude an updated project status of the primary control node or anupdated project status of the worker node. The updated information maybe transmitted to the other nodes in the grid to update their stalestored information.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing system600 including a control node and a worker node, according to embodimentsof the present technology. Communications grid 600 computing systemincludes one control node (control node 602) and one worker node (workernode 610) for purposes of illustration, but may include more workerand/or control nodes. The control node 602 is communicatively connectedto worker node 610 via communication path 650. Therefore, control node602 may transmit information (e.g., related to the communications gridor notifications), to and receive information from worker node 610 viapath 650.

Similar to in FIG. 4 , communications grid computing system (or just“communications grid”) 600 includes data processing nodes (control node602 and worker node 610). Nodes 602 and 610 include multi-core dataprocessors. Each node 602 and 610 includes a grid-enabled softwarecomponent (GESC) 620 that executes on the data processor associated withthat node and interfaces with buffer memory 622 also associated withthat node. Each node 602 and 610 includes database management software(DBMS) 628 that executes on a database server (not shown) at controlnode 602 and on a database server (not shown) at worker node 610.

Each node also includes a data store 624. Data stores 624, similar tonetwork-attached data stores 110 in FIG. 1 and data stores 235 in FIG. 2, are used to store data to be processed by the nodes in the computingenvironment. Data stores 624 may also store any intermediate or finaldata generated by the computing system after being processed, forexample in non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, theconfiguration of the grid computing environment allows its operations tobe performed such that intermediate and final data results can be storedsolely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement thatintermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types ofmemory. Storing such data in volatile memory may be useful in certainsituations, such as when the grid receives queries (e.g., ad hoc) from aclient and when responses, which are generated by processing largeamounts of data, need to be generated quickly or on-the-fly. In such asituation, the grid may be configured to retain the data within memoryso that responses can be generated at different levels of detail and sothat a client may interactively query against this information.

Each node also includes a user-defined function (UDF) 626. The UDFprovides a mechanism for the DBMS 628 to transfer data to or receivedata from the database stored in the data stores 624 that are managed bythe DBMS. For example, UDF 626 can be invoked by the DBMS to providedata to the GESC for processing. The UDF 626 may establish a socketconnection (not shown) with the GESC to transfer the data.Alternatively, the UDF 626 can transfer data to the GESC by writing datato shared memory accessible by both the UDF and the GESC.

The GESC 620 at the nodes 602 and 620 may be connected via a network,such as network 108 shown in FIG. 1 . Therefore, nodes 602 and 620 cancommunicate with each other via the network using a predeterminedcommunication protocol such as, for example, the Message PassingInterface (MPI). Each GESC 620 can engage in point-to-pointcommunication with the GESC at another node or in collectivecommunication with multiple GESCs via the network. The GESC 620 at eachnode may contain identical (or nearly identical) software instructions.Each node may be capable of operating as either a control node or aworker node. The GESC at the control node 602 can communicate, over acommunication path 652, with a client deice 630. More specifically,control node 602 may communicate with client application 632 hosted bythe client device 630 to receive queries and to respond to those queriesafter processing large amounts of data.

DBMS 628 may control the creation, maintenance, and use of database ordata structure (not shown) within a nodes 602 or 610. The database mayorganize data stored in data stores 624. The DBMS 628 at control node602 may accept requests for data and transfer the appropriate data forthe request. With such a process, collections of data may be distributedacross multiple physical locations. In this example, each node 602 and610 stores a portion of the total data managed by the management systemin its associated data store 624.

Furthermore, the DBMS may be responsible for protecting against dataloss using replication techniques. Replication includes providing abackup copy of data stored on one node on one or more other nodes.Therefore, if one node fails, the data from the failed node can berecovered from a replicated copy residing at another node. However, asdescribed herein with respect to FIG. 4 , data or status information foreach node in the communications grid may also be shared with each nodeon the grid.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example method 700 forexecuting a project within a grid computing system, according toembodiments of the present technology. As described with respect to FIG.6 , the GESC at the control node may transmit data with a client device(e.g., client device 630) to receive queries for executing a project andto respond to those queries after large amounts of data have beenprocessed. The query may be transmitted to the control node, where thequery may include a request for executing a project, as described inoperation 702. The query can contain instructions on the type of dataanalysis to be performed in the project and whether the project shouldbe executed using the grid-based computing environment, as shown inoperation 704.

To initiate the project, the control node may determine if the queryrequests use of the grid-based computing environment to execute theproject. If the determination is no, then the control node initiatesexecution of the project in a solo environment (e.g., at the controlnode), as described in operation 710. If the determination is yes, thecontrol node may initiate execution of the project in the grid-basedcomputing environment, as described in operation 706. In such asituation, the request may include a requested configuration of thegrid. For example, the request may include a number of control nodes anda number of worker nodes to be used in the grid when executing theproject. After the project has been completed, the control node maytransmit results of the analysis yielded by the grid, as described inoperation 708. Whether the project is executed in a solo or grid-basedenvironment, the control node provides the results of the project, asdescribed in operation 712.

As noted with respect to FIG. 2 , the computing environments describedherein may collect data (e.g., as received from network devices, such assensors, such as network devices 204-209 in FIG. 2 , and client devicesor other sources) to be processed as part of a data analytics project,and data may be received in real time as part of a streaming analyticsenvironment (e.g., ESP). Data may be collected using a variety ofsources as communicated via different kinds of networks or locally, suchas on a real-time streaming basis. For example, network devices mayreceive data periodically from network device sensors as the sensorscontinuously sense, monitor and track changes in their environments.More specifically, an increasing number of distributed applicationsdevelop or produce continuously flowing data from distributed sources byapplying queries to the data before distributing the data togeographically distributed recipients. An event stream processing engine(ESPE) may continuously apply the queries to the data as it is receivedand determines which entities should receive the data. Client or otherdevices may also subscribe to the ESPE or other devices processing ESPdata so that they can receive data after processing, based on forexample the entities determined by the processing engine. For example,client devices 230 in FIG. 2 may subscribe to the ESPE in computingenvironment 214. In another example, event subscription devices 1024a-c, described further with respect to FIG. 10 , may also subscribe tothe ESPE. The ESPE may determine or define how input data or eventstreams from network devices or other publishers (e.g., network devices204-209 in FIG. 2 ) are transformed into meaningful output data to beconsumed by subscribers, such as for example client devices 230 in FIG.2 .

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an EventStream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. ESPE 800 may include one or more projects 802. A project maybe described as a second-level container in an engine model managed byESPE 800 where a thread pool size for the project may be defined by auser. Each project of the one or more projects 802 may include one ormore continuous queries 804 that contain data flows, which are datatransformations of incoming event streams. The one or more continuousqueries 804 may include one or more source windows 806 and one or morederived windows 808.

The ESPE may receive streaming data over a period of time related tocertain events, such as events or other data sensed by one or morenetwork devices. The ESPE may perform operations associated withprocessing data created by the one or more devices. For example, theESPE may receive data from the one or more network devices 204-209 shownin FIG. 2 . As noted, the network devices may include sensors that sensedifferent aspects of their environments, and may collect data over timebased on those sensed observations. For example, the ESPE may beimplemented within one or more of machines 220 and 240 shown in FIG. 2 .The ESPE may be implemented within such a machine by an ESP application.An ESP application may embed an ESPE with its own dedicated thread poolor pools into its application space where the main application threadcan do application-specific work and the ESPE processes event streams atleast by creating an instance of a model into processing objects.

The engine container is the top-level container in a model that managesthe resources of the one or more projects 802. In an illustrativeembodiment, for example, there may be only one ESPE 800 for eachinstance of the ESP application, and ESPE 800 may have a unique enginename. Additionally, the one or more projects 802 may each have uniqueproject names, and each query may have a unique continuous query nameand begin with a uniquely named source window of the one or more sourcewindows 806. ESPE 800 may or may not be persistent.

Continuous query modeling involves defining directed graphs of windowsfor event stream manipulation and transformation. A window in thecontext of event stream manipulation and transformation is a processingnode in an event stream processing model. A window in a continuous querycan perform aggregations, computations, pattern-matching, and otheroperations on data flowing through the window. A continuous query may bedescribed as a directed graph of source, relational, pattern matching,and procedural windows. The one or more source windows 806 and the oneor more derived windows 808 represent continuously executing queriesthat generate updates to a query result set as new event blocks streamthrough ESPE 800. A directed graph, for example, is a set of nodesconnected by edges, where the edges have a direction associated withthem.

An event object may be described as a packet of data accessible as acollection of fields, with at least one of the fields defined as a keyor unique identifier (ID). The event object may be created using avariety of formats including binary, alphanumeric, XML, etc. Each eventobject may include one or more fields designated as a primary identifier(ID) for the event so ESPE 800 can support operation codes (opcodes) forevents including insert, update, upsert, and delete. Upsert opcodesupdate the event if the key field already exists; otherwise, the eventis inserted. For illustration, an event object may be a packed binaryrepresentation of a set of field values and include both metadata andfield data associated with an event. The metadata may include an opcodeindicating if the event represents an insert, update, delete, or upsert,a set of flags indicating if the event is a normal, partial-update, or aretention generated event from retention policy management, and a set ofmicrosecond timestamps that can be used for latency measurements.

An event block object may be described as a grouping or package of eventobjects. An event stream may be described as a flow of event blockobjects. A continuous query of the one or more continuous queries 804transforms a source event stream made up of streaming event blockobjects published into ESPE 800 into one or more output event streamsusing the one or more source windows 806 and the one or more derivedwindows 808. A continuous query can also be thought of as data flowmodeling.

The one or more source windows 806 are at the top of the directed graphand have no windows feeding into them. Event streams are published intothe one or more source windows 806, and from there, the event streamsmay be directed to the next set of connected windows as defined by thedirected graph. The one or more derived windows 808 are all instantiatedwindows that are not source windows and that have other windowsstreaming events into them. The one or more derived windows 808 mayperform computations or transformations on the incoming event streams.The one or more derived windows 808 transform event streams based on thewindow type (that is operators such as join, filter, compute, aggregate,copy, pattern match, procedural, union, etc.) and window settings. Asevent streams are published into ESPE 800, they are continuouslyqueried, and the resulting sets of derived windows in these queries arecontinuously updated.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process includingoperations performed by an event stream processing engine, according tosome embodiments of the present technology. As noted, the ESPE 800 (oran associated ESP application) defines how input event streams aretransformed into meaningful output event streams. More specifically, theESP application may define how input event streams from publishers(e.g., network devices providing sensed data) are transformed intomeaningful output event streams consumed by subscribers (e.g., a dataanalytics project being executed by a machine or set of machines).

Within the application, a user may interact with one or more userinterface windows presented to the user in a display under control ofthe ESPE independently or through a browser application in an orderselectable by the user. For example, a user may execute an ESPapplication, which causes presentation of a first user interface window,which may include a plurality of menus and selectors such as drop downmenus, buttons, text boxes, hyperlinks, etc. associated with the ESPapplication as understood by a person of skill in the art. As furtherunderstood by a person of skill in the art, various operations may beperformed in parallel, for example, using a plurality of threads.

At operation 900, an ESP application may define and start an ESPE,thereby instantiating an ESPE at a device, such as machine 220 and/or240. In an operation 902, the engine container is created. Forillustration, ESPE 800 may be instantiated using a function call thatspecifies the engine container as a manager for the model.

In an operation 904, the one or more continuous queries 804 areinstantiated by ESPE 800 as a model. The one or more continuous queries804 may be instantiated with a dedicated thread pool or pools thatgenerate updates as new events stream through ESPE 800. Forillustration, the one or more continuous queries 804 may be created tomodel business processing logic within ESPE 800, to predict eventswithin ESPE 800, to model a physical system within ESPE 800, to predictthe physical system state within ESPE 800, etc. For example, as noted,ESPE 800 may be used to support sensor data monitoring and management(e.g., sensing may include force, torque, load, strain, position,temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemical properties, resistance,electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance, proximity, acoustics,moisture, distance, speed, vibrations, acceleration, electricalpotential, or electrical current, etc.).

ESPE 800 may analyze and process events in motion or “event streams.”Instead of storing data and running queries against the stored data,ESPE 800 may store queries and stream data through them to allowcontinuous analysis of data as it is received. The one or more sourcewindows 806 and the one or more derived windows 808 may be created basedon the relational, pattern matching, and procedural algorithms thattransform the input event streams into the output event streams tomodel, simulate, score, test, predict, etc. based on the continuousquery model defined and application to the streamed data.

In an operation 906, a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) capability isinitialized for ESPE 800. In an illustrative embodiment, a pub/subcapability is initialized for each project of the one or more projects802. To initialize and enable pub/sub capability for ESPE 800, a portnumber may be provided. Pub/sub clients can use a host name of an ESPdevice running the ESPE and the port number to establish pub/subconnections to ESPE 800.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system 1000 interfacing between publishingdevice 1022 and event subscribing devices 1024 a-c, according toembodiments of the present technology. ESP system 1000 may include ESPdevice or subsystem 851, event publishing device 1022, an eventsubscribing device A 1024 a, an event subscribing device B 1024 b, andan event subscribing device C 1024 c. Input event streams are output toESP device 851 by publishing device 1022. In alternative embodiments,the input event streams may be created by a plurality of publishingdevices. The plurality of publishing devices further may publish eventstreams to other ESP devices. The one or more continuous queriesinstantiated by ESPE 800 may analyze and process the input event streamsto form output event streams output to event subscribing device A 1024a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C1024 c. ESP system 1000 may include a greater or a fewer number of eventsubscribing devices of event subscribing devices.

Publish-subscribe is a message-oriented interaction paradigm based onindirect addressing. Processed data recipients specify their interest inreceiving information from ESPE 800 by subscribing to specific classesof events, while information sources publish events to ESPE 800 withoutdirectly addressing the receiving parties. ESPE 800 coordinates theinteractions and processes the data. In some cases, the data sourcereceives confirmation that the published information has been receivedby a data recipient.

A publish/subscribe API may be described as a library that enables anevent publisher, such as publishing device 1022, to publish eventstreams into ESPE 800 or an event subscriber, such as event subscribingdevice A 1024 a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and eventsubscribing device C 1024 c, to subscribe to event streams from ESPE800. For illustration, one or more publish/subscribe APIs may bedefined. Using the publish/subscribe API, an event publishingapplication may publish event streams into a running event streamprocessor project source window of ESPE 800, and the event subscriptionapplication may subscribe to an event stream processor project sourcewindow of ESPE 800.

The publish/subscribe API provides cross-platform connectivity andendianness compatibility between ESP application and other networkedapplications, such as event publishing applications instantiated atpublishing device 1022, and event subscription applications instantiatedat one or more of event subscribing device A 1024 a, event subscribingdevice B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C 1024 c.

Referring back to FIG. 9 , operation 906 initializes thepublish/subscribe capability of ESPE 800. In an operation 908, the oneor more projects 802 are started. The one or more started projects mayrun in the background on an ESP device. In an operation 910, an eventblock object is received from one or more computing device of the eventpublishing device 1022.

ESP subsystem 800 may include a publishing client 1002, ESPE 800, asubscribing client A 1004, a subscribing client B 1006, and asubscribing client C 1008. Publishing client 1002 may be started by anevent publishing application executing at publishing device 1022 usingthe publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client A 1004 may be started byan event subscription application A, executing at event subscribingdevice A 1024 a using the publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client B1006 may be started by an event subscription application B executing atevent subscribing device B 1024 b using the publish/subscribe API.Subscribing client C 1008 may be started by an event subscriptionapplication C executing at event subscribing device C 1024 c using thepublish/subscribe API.

An event block object containing one or more event objects is injectedinto a source window of the one or more source windows 806 from aninstance of an event publishing application on event publishing device1022. The event block object may be generated, for example, by the eventpublishing application and may be received by publishing client 1002. Aunique ID may be maintained as the event block object is passed betweenthe one or more source windows 806 and/or the one or more derivedwindows 808 of ESPE 800, and to subscribing client A 1004, subscribingclient B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 and to event subscriptiondevice A 1024 a, event subscription device B 1024 b, and eventsubscription device C 1024 c. Publishing client 1002 may furthergenerate and include a unique embedded transaction ID in the event blockobject as the event block object is processed by a continuous query, aswell as the unique ID that publishing device 1022 assigned to the eventblock object.

In an operation 912, the event block object is processed through the oneor more continuous queries 804. In an operation 914, the processed eventblock object is output to one or more computing devices of the eventsubscribing devices 1024 a-c. For example, subscribing client A 1004,subscribing client B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 may send thereceived event block object to event subscription device A 1024 a, eventsubscription device B 1024 b, and event subscription device C 1024 c,respectively.

ESPE 800 maintains the event block containership aspect of the receivedevent blocks from when the event block is published into a source windowand works its way through the directed graph defined by the one or morecontinuous queries 804 with the various event translations before beingoutput to subscribers. Subscribers can correlate a group of subscribedevents back to a group of published events by comparing the unique ID ofthe event block object that a publisher, such as publishing device 1022,attached to the event block object with the event block ID received bythe subscriber.

In an operation 916, a determination is made concerning whether or notprocessing is stopped. If processing is not stopped, processingcontinues in operation 910 to continue receiving the one or more eventstreams containing event block objects from the, for example, one ormore network devices. If processing is stopped, processing continues inan operation 918. In operation 918, the started projects are stopped. Inoperation 920, the ESPE is shutdown.

As noted, in some embodiments, big data is processed for an analyticsproject after the data is received and stored. In other embodiments,distributed applications process continuously flowing data in real-timefrom distributed sources by applying queries to the data beforedistributing the data to geographically distributed recipients. Asnoted, an event stream processing engine (ESPE) may continuously applythe queries to the data as it is received and determines which entitiesreceive the processed data. This allows for large amounts of data beingreceived and/or collected in a variety of environments to be processedand distributed in real time. For example, as shown with respect to FIG.2 , data may be collected from network devices that may include deviceswithin the internet of things, such as devices within a home automationnetwork. However, such data may be collected from a variety of differentresources in a variety of different environments. In any such situation,embodiments of the present technology allow for real-time processing ofsuch data.

Aspects of the current disclosure provide technical solutions totechnical problems, such as computing problems that arise when an ESPdevice fails which results in a complete service interruption andpotentially significant data loss. The data loss can be catastrophicwhen the streamed data is supporting mission critical operations such asthose in support of an ongoing manufacturing or drilling operation. Anembodiment of an ESP system achieves a rapid and seamless failover ofESPE running at the plurality of ESP devices without serviceinterruption or data loss, thus significantly improving the reliabilityof an operational system that relies on the live or real-time processingof the data streams. The event publishing systems, the event subscribingsystems, and each ESPE not executing at a failed ESP device are notaware of or effected by the failed ESP device. The ESP system mayinclude thousands of event publishing systems and event subscribingsystems. The ESP system keeps the failover logic and awareness withinthe boundaries of out-messaging network connector and out-messagingnetwork device.

In one example embodiment, a system is provided to support a failoverwhen event stream processing (ESP) event blocks. The system includes,but is not limited to, an out-messaging network device and a computingdevice. The computing device includes, but is not limited to, aprocessor and a computer-readable medium operably coupled to theprocessor. The processor is configured to execute an ESP engine (ESPE).The computer-readable medium has instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the computing device to support thefailover. An event block object is received from the ESPE that includesa unique identifier. A first status of the computing device as active orstandby is determined. When the first status is active, a second statusof the computing device as newly active or not newly active isdetermined. Newly active is determined when the computing device isswitched from a standby status to an active status. When the secondstatus is newly active, a last published event block object identifierthat uniquely identifies a last published event block object isdetermined. A next event block object is selected from a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium accessible by the computing device. The nextevent block object has an event block object identifier that is greaterthan the determined last published event block object identifier. Theselected next event block object is published to an out-messagingnetwork device. When the second status of the computing device is notnewly active, the received event block object is published to theout-messaging network device. When the first status of the computingdevice is standby, the received event block object is stored in thenon-transitory computer-readable medium.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an example of a process for generating andusing a machine-learning model according to some aspects. Machinelearning is a branch of artificial intelligence that relates tomathematical models that can learn from, categorize, and makepredictions about data. Such mathematical models, which can be referredto as machine-learning models, can classify input data among two or moreclasses; cluster input data among two or more groups; predict a resultbased on input data; identify patterns or trends in input data; identifya distribution of input data in a space; or any combination of these.Examples of machine-learning models can include (i) neural networks;(ii) decision trees, such as classification trees and regression trees;(iii) classifiers, such as Naive bias classifiers, logistic regressionclassifiers, ridge regression classifiers, random forest classifiers,least absolute shrinkage and selector (LASSO) classifiers, and supportvector machines; (iv) clusterers, such as k-means clusterers, mean-shiftclusterers, and spectral clusterers; (v) factorizers, such asfactorization machines, principal component analyzers and kernelprincipal component analyzers; and (vi) ensembles or other combinationsof machine-learning models. In some examples, neural networks caninclude deep neural networks, feed-forward neural networks, recurrentneural networks, convolutional neural networks, radial basis function(RBF) neural networks, echo state neural networks, long short-termmemory neural networks, bidirectional recurrent neural networks, gatedneural networks, hierarchical recurrent neural networks, stochasticneural networks, modular neural networks, spiking neural networks,dynamic neural networks, cascading neural networks, neuro-fuzzy neuralnetworks, or any combination of these.

Different machine-learning models may be used interchangeably to performa task. Examples of tasks that can be performed at least partially usingmachine-learning models include various types of scoring;bioinformatics; cheminformatics; software engineering; fraud detection;customer segmentation; generating online recommendations; adaptivewebsites; determining customer lifetime value; search engines; placingadvertisements in real time or near real time; classifying DNAsequences; affective computing; performing natural language processingand understanding; object recognition and computer vision; roboticlocomotion; playing games; optimization and metaheuristics; detectingnetwork intrusions; medical diagnosis and monitoring; or predicting whenan asset, such as a machine, will need maintenance.

Any number and combination of tools can be used to createmachine-learning models. Examples of tools for creating and managingmachine-learning models can include SAS® Enterprise Miner, SAS® RapidPredictive Modeler, and SAS® Model Manager, SAS Cloud Analytic Services(CAS)®, SAS Viya® of all which are by SAS Institute Inc. of Cary, NorthCarolina.

Machine-learning models can be constructed through an at least partiallyautomated (e.g., with little or no human involvement) process calledtraining. During training, input data can be iteratively supplied to amachine-learning model to enable the machine-learning model to identifypatterns related to the input data or to identify relationships betweenthe input data and output data. With training, the machine-learningmodel can be transformed from an untrained state to a trained state.Input data can be split into one or more training sets and one or morevalidation sets, and the training process may be repeated multipletimes. The splitting may follow a k-fold cross-validation rule, aleave-one-out-rule, a leave-p-out rule, or a holdout rule. An overviewof training and using a machine-learning model is described below withrespect to the flow chart of FIG. 11 .

In block 1102, training data is received. In some examples, the trainingdata is received from a remote database or a local database, constructedfrom various subsets of data, or input by a user. The training data canbe used in its raw form for training a machine-learning model orpre-processed into another form, which can then be used for training themachine-learning model. For example, the raw form of the training datacan be smoothed, truncated, aggregated, clustered, or otherwisemanipulated into another form, which can then be used for training themachine-learning model.

In block 1104, a machine-learning model is trained using the trainingdata. The machine-learning model can be trained in a supervised,unsupervised, or semi-supervised manner. In supervised training, eachinput in the training data is correlated to a desired output. Thisdesired output may be a scalar, a vector, or a different type of datastructure such as text or an image. This may enable the machine-learningmodel to learn a mapping between the inputs and desired outputs. Inunsupervised training, the training data includes inputs, but notdesired outputs, so that the machine-learning model has to findstructure in the inputs on its own. In semi-supervised training, onlysome of the inputs in the training data are correlated to desiredoutputs.

In block 1106, the machine-learning model is evaluated. For example, anevaluation dataset can be obtained, for example, via user input or froma database. The evaluation dataset can include inputs correlated todesired outputs. The inputs can be provided to the machine-learningmodel and the outputs from the machine-learning model can be compared tothe desired outputs. If the outputs from the machine-learning modelclosely correspond with the desired outputs, the machine-learning modelmay have a high degree of accuracy. For example, if 90% or more of theoutputs from the machine-learning model are the same as the desiredoutputs in the evaluation dataset, the machine-learning model may have ahigh degree of accuracy. Otherwise, the machine-learning model may havea low degree of accuracy. The 90% number is an example only. A realisticand desirable accuracy percentage is dependent on the problem and thedata.

In some examples, if, at 1108, the machine-learning model has aninadequate degree of accuracy for a particular task, the process canreturn to block 1104, where the machine-learning model can be furthertrained using additional training data or otherwise modified to improveaccuracy. However, if, at 1108. the machine-learning model has anadequate degree of accuracy for the particular task, the process cancontinue to block 1110.

In block 1110, new data is received. In some examples, the new data isreceived from a remote database or a local database, constructed fromvarious subsets of data, or input by a user. The new data may be unknownto the machine-learning model. For example, the machine-learning modelmay not have previously processed or analyzed the new data.

In block 1112, the trained machine-learning model is used to analyze thenew data and provide a result. For example, the new data can be providedas input to the trained machine-learning model. The trainedmachine-learning model can analyze the new data and provide a resultthat includes a classification of the new data into a particular class,a clustering of the new data into a particular group, a prediction basedon the new data, or any combination of these.

In block 1114, the result is post-processed. For example, the result canbe added to, multiplied with, or otherwise combined with other data aspart of a job. As another example, the result can be transformed from afirst format, such as a time series format, into another format, such asa count series format. Any number and combination of operations can beperformed on the result during post-processing.

A more specific example of a machine-learning model is the neuralnetwork 1200 shown in FIG. 12 . The neural network 1200 is representedas multiple layers of neurons 1208 that can exchange data between oneanother via connections 1255 that may be selectively instantiatedthereamong. The layers include an input layer 1202 for receiving inputdata provided at inputs 1222, one or more hidden layers 1204, and anoutput layer 1206 for providing a result at outputs 1277. The hiddenlayer(s) 1204 are referred to as hidden because they may not be directlyobservable or have their inputs or outputs directly accessible duringthe normal functioning of the neural network 1200. Although the neuralnetwork 1200 is shown as having a specific number of layers and neuronsfor exemplary purposes, the neural network 1200 can have any number andcombination of layers, and each layer can have any number andcombination of neurons.

The neurons 1208 and connections 1255 thereamong may have numericweights, which can be tuned during training of the neural network 1200.For example, training data can be provided to at least the inputs 1222to the input layer 1202 of the neural network 1200, and the neuralnetwork 1200 can use the training data to tune one or more numericweights of the neural network 1200. In some examples, the neural network1200 can be trained using backpropagation. Backpropagation can includedetermining a gradient of a particular numeric weight based on adifference between an actual output of the neural network 1200 at theoutputs 1277 and a desired output of the neural network 1200. Based onthe gradient, one or more numeric weights of the neural network 1200 canbe updated to reduce the difference therebetween, thereby increasing theaccuracy of the neural network 1200. This process can be repeatedmultiple times to train the neural network 1200. For example, thisprocess can be repeated hundreds or thousands of times to train theneural network 1200.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 is a feed-forward neuralnetwork. In a feed-forward neural network, the connections 1255 areinstantiated and/or weighted so that every neuron 1208 only propagatesan output value to a subsequent layer of the neural network 1200. Forexample, data may only move one direction (forward) from one neuron 1208to the next neuron 1208 in a feed-forward neural network. Such a“forward” direction may be defined as proceeding from the input layer1202 through the one or more hidden layers 1204, and toward the outputlayer 1206.

In other examples, the neural network 1200 may be a recurrent neuralnetwork. A recurrent neural network can include one or more feedbackloops among the connections 1255, thereby allowing data to propagate inboth forward and backward through the neural network 1200. Such a“backward” direction may be defined as proceeding in the oppositedirection of forward, such as from the output layer 1206 through the oneor more hidden layers 1204, and toward the input layer 1202. This canallow for information to persist within the recurrent neural network.For example, a recurrent neural network can determine an output based atleast partially on information that the recurrent neural network hasseen before, giving the recurrent neural network the ability to useprevious input to inform the output.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 operates by receiving a vectorof numbers from one layer; transforming the vector of numbers into a newvector of numbers using a matrix of numeric weights, a nonlinearity, orboth; and providing the new vector of numbers to a subsequent layer(“subsequent” in the sense of moving “forward”) of the neural network1200. Each subsequent layer of the neural network 1200 can repeat thisprocess until the neural network 1200 outputs a final result at theoutputs 1277 of the output layer 1206. For example, the neural network1200 can receive a vector of numbers at the inputs 1222 of the inputlayer 1202. The neural network 1200 can multiply the vector of numbersby a matrix of numeric weights to determine a weighted vector. Thematrix of numeric weights can be tuned during the training of the neuralnetwork 1200. The neural network 1200 can transform the weighted vectorusing a nonlinearity, such as a sigmoid tangent or the hyperbolictangent. In some examples, the nonlinearity can include a rectifiedlinear unit, which can be expressed using the equation y = max(x, 0)where y is the output and x is an input value from the weighted vector.The transformed output can be supplied to a subsequent layer (e.g., ahidden layer 1204) of the neural network 1200. The subsequent layer ofthe neural network 1200 can receive the transformed output, multiply thetransformed output by a matrix of numeric weights and a nonlinearity,and provide the result to yet another layer of the neural network 1200(e.g., another, subsequent, hidden layer 1204). This process continuesuntil the neural network 1200 outputs a final result at the outputs 1277of the output layer 1206.

As also depicted in FIG. 12 , the neural network 1200 may be implementedeither through the execution of the instructions of one or more routines1244 by central processing units (CPUs), or through the use of one ormore neuromorphic devices 1250 that incorporate a set of memristors (orother similar components) that each function to implement one of theneurons 1208 in hardware. Where multiple neuromorphic devices 1250 areused, they may be interconnected in a depth-wise manner to enableimplementing neural networks with greater quantities of layers, and/orin a width-wise manner to enable implementing neural networks havinggreater quantities of neurons 1208 per layer.

The neuromorphic device 1250 may incorporate a storage interface 1299 bywhich neural network configuration data 1293 that is descriptive ofvarious parameters and hyper parameters of the neural network 1200 maybe stored and/or retrieved. More specifically, the neural networkconfiguration data 1293 may include such parameters as weighting and/orbiasing values derived through the training of the neural network 1200,as has been described. Alternatively or additionally, the neural networkconfiguration data 1293 may include such hyperparameters as the mannerin which the neurons 1208 are to be interconnected (e.g., feed-forwardor recurrent), the trigger function to be implemented within the neurons1208, the quantity of layers and/or the overall quantity of the neurons1208. The neural network configuration data 1293 may provide suchinformation for more than one neuromorphic device 1250 where multipleones have been interconnected to support larger neural networks.

Other examples of the present disclosure may include any number andcombination of machine-learning models having any number and combinationof characteristics. The machine-learning model(s) can be trained in asupervised, semi-supervised, or unsupervised manner, or any combinationof these. The machine-learning model(s) can be implemented using asingle computing device or multiple computing devices, such as thecommunications grid computing system 400 discussed above.

Implementing some examples of the present disclosure at least in part byusing machine-learning models can reduce the total number of processingiterations, time, memory, electrical power, or any combination of theseconsumed by a computing device when analyzing data. For example, aneural network may more readily identify patterns in data than otherapproaches. This may enable the neural network to analyze the data usingfewer processing cycles and less memory than other approaches, whileobtaining a similar or greater level of accuracy.

Some machine-learning approaches may be more efficiently and speedilyexecuted and processed with machine-learning specific processors (e.g.,not a generic CPU). Such processors may also provide an energy savingswhen compared to generic CPUs. For example, some of these processors caninclude a graphical processing unit (GPU), an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), anartificial intelligence (AI) accelerator, a neural computing core, aneural computing engine, a neural processing unit, a purpose-built chiparchitecture for deep learning, and/or some other machine-learningspecific processor that implements a machine learning approach or one ormore neural networks using semiconductor (e.g., silicon (Si), galliumarsenide(GaAs)) devices. These processors may also be employed inheterogeneous computing architectures with a number of and/or a varietyof different types of cores, engines, nodes, and/or layers to achievevarious energy efficiencies, processing speed improvements, datacommunication speed improvements, and/or data efficiency targets andimprovements throughout various parts of the system when compared to ahomogeneous computing architecture that employs CPUs for general purposecomputing.

FIG. 13 illustrates various aspects of the use of containers 1336 as amechanism to allocate processing, storage and/or other resources of aprocessing system 1300 to the performance of various analyses. Morespecifically, in a processing system 1300 that includes one or more nodedevices 1330 (e.g., the aforedescribed grid system 400), the processing,storage and/or other resources of each node device 1330 may be allocatedthrough the instantiation and/or maintenance of multiple containers 1336within the node devices 1330 to support the performance(s) of one ormore analyses. As each container 1336 is instantiated, predeterminedamounts of processing, storage and/or other resources may be allocatedthereto as part of creating an execution environment therein in whichone or more executable routines 1334 may be executed to cause theperformance of part or all of each analysis that is requested to beperformed.

It may be that at least a subset of the containers 1336 are eachallocated a similar combination and amounts of resources so that each isof a similar configuration with a similar range of capabilities, andtherefore, are interchangeable. This may be done in embodiments in whichit is desired to have at least such a subset of the containers 1336already instantiated prior to the receipt of requests to performanalyses, and thus, prior to the specific resource requirements of eachof those analyses being known.

Alternatively or additionally, it may be that at least a subset of thecontainers 1336 are not instantiated until after the processing system1300 receives requests to perform analyses where each request mayinclude indications of the resources required for one of those analyses.Such information concerning resource requirements may then be used toguide the selection of resources and/or the amount of each resourceallocated to each such container 1336. As a result, it may be that oneor more of the containers 1336 are caused to have somewhat specializedconfigurations such that there may be differing types of containers tosupport the performance of different analyses and/or different portionsof analyses.

It may be that the entirety of the logic of a requested analysis isimplemented within a single executable routine 1334. In suchembodiments, it may be that the entirety of that analysis is performedwithin a single container 1336 as that single executable routine 1334 isexecuted therein. However, it may be that such a single executableroutine 1334, when executed, is at least intended to cause theinstantiation of multiple instances of itself that are intended to beexecuted at least partially in parallel. This may result in theexecution of multiple instances of such an executable routine 1334within a single container 1336 and/or across multiple containers 1336.

Alternatively or additionally, it may be that the logic of a requestedanalysis is implemented with multiple differing executable routines1334. In such embodiments, it may be that at least a subset of suchdiffering executable routines 1334 are executed within a singlecontainer 1336. However, it may be that the execution of at least asubset of such differing executable routines 1334 is distributed acrossmultiple containers 1336.

Where an executable routine 1334 of an analysis is under development,and/or is under scrutiny to confirm its functionality, it may be thatthe container 1336 within which that executable routine 1334 is to beexecuted is additionally configured assist in limiting and/or monitoringaspects of the functionality of that executable routine 1334. Morespecifically, the execution environment provided by such a container1336 may be configured to enforce limitations on accesses that areallowed to be made to memory and/or I/O addresses to control whatstorage locations and/or I/O devices may be accessible to thatexecutable routine 1334. Such limitations may be derived based oncomments within the programming code of the executable routine 1334and/or other information that describes what functionality theexecutable routine 1334 is expected to have, including what memoryand/or I/O accesses are expected to be made when the executable routine1334 is executed. Then, when the executable routine 1334 is executedwithin such a container 1336, the accesses that are attempted to be madeby the executable routine 1334 may be monitored to identify any behaviorthat deviates from what is expected.

Where the possibility exists that different executable routines 1334 maybe written in different programming languages, it may be that differentsubsets of containers 1336 are configured to support differentprogramming languages. In such embodiments, it may be that eachexecutable routine 1334 is analyzed to identify what programminglanguage it is written in, and then what container 1336 is assigned tosupport the execution of that executable routine 1334 may be at leastpartially based on the identified programming language. Where thepossibility exists that a single requested analysis may be based on theexecution of multiple executable routines 1334 that may each be writtenin a different programming language, it may be that at least a subset ofthe containers 1336 are configured to support the performance of variousdata structure and/or data format conversion operations to enable a dataobject output by one executable routine 1334 written in one programminglanguage to be accepted as an input to another executable routine 1334written in another programming language.

As depicted, at least a subset of the containers 1336 may beinstantiated within one or more VMs 1331 that may be instantiated withinone or more node devices 1330. Thus, in some embodiments, it may be thatthe processing, storage and/or other resources of at least one nodedevice 1330 may be partially allocated through the instantiation of oneor more VMs 1331, and then in turn, may be further allocated within atleast one VM 1331 through the instantiation of one or more containers1336.

In some embodiments, it may be that such a nested allocation ofresources may be carried out to effect an allocation of resources basedon two differing criteria. By way of example, it may be that theinstantiation of VMs 1331 is used to allocate the resources of a nodedevice 1330 to multiple users or groups of users in accordance with anyof a variety of service agreements by which amounts of processing,storage and/or other resources are paid for each such user or group ofusers. Then, within each VM 1331 or set of VMs 1331 that is allocated toa particular user or group of users, containers 1336 may be allocated todistribute the resources allocated to each VM 1331 among variousanalyses that are requested to be performed by that particular user orgroup of users.

As depicted, where the processing system 1300 includes more than onenode device 1330, the processing system 1300 may also include at leastone control device 1350 within which one or more control routines 1354may be executed to control various aspects of the use of the nodedevice(s) 1330 to perform requested analyses. By way of example, it maybe that at least one control routine 1354 implements logic to controlthe allocation of the processing, storage and/or other resources of eachnode device 1300 to each VM 1331 and/or container 1336 that isinstantiated therein. Thus, it may be the control device(s) 1350 thateffects a nested allocation of resources, such as the aforedescribedexample allocation of resources based on two differing criteria.

As also depicted, the processing system 1300 may also include one ormore distinct requesting devices 1370 from which requests to performanalyses may be received by the control device(s) 1350. Thus, and by wayof example, it may be that at least one control routine 1354 implementslogic to monitor for the receipt of requests from authorized usersand/or groups of users for various analyses to be performed using theprocessing, storage and/or other resources of the node device(s) 1330 ofthe processing system 1300. The control device(s) 1350 may receiveindications of the availability of resources, the status of theperformances of analyses that are already underway, and/or still otherstatus information from the node device(s) 1330 in response to polling,at a recurring interval of time, and/or in response to the occurrence ofvarious preselected events. More specifically, the control device(s)1350 may receive indications of status for each container 1336, each VM1331 and/or each node device 1330. At least one control routine 1354 mayimplement logic that may use such information to select container(s)1336, VM(s) 1331 and/or node device(s) 1330 that are to be used in theexecution of the executable routine(s) 1334 associated with eachrequested analysis.

As further depicted, in some embodiments, the one or more controlroutines 1354 may be executed within one or more containers 1356 and/orwithin one or more VMs 1351 that may be instantiated within the one ormore control devices 1350. It may be that multiple instances of one ormore varieties of control routine 1354 may be executed within separatecontainers 1356, within separate VMs 1351 and/or within separate controldevices 1350 to better enable parallelized control over parallelperformances of requested analyses, to provide improved redundancyagainst failures for such control functions, and/or to separatediffering ones of the control routines 1354 that perform differentfunctions. By way of example, it may be that multiple instances of afirst variety of control routine 1354 that communicate with therequesting device(s) 1370 are executed in a first set of containers 1356instantiated within a first VM 1351, while multiple instances of asecond variety of control routine 1354 that control the allocation ofresources of the node device(s) 1330 are executed in a second set ofcontainers 1356 instantiated within a second VM 1351. It may be that thecontrol of the allocation of resources for performing requested analysesmay include deriving an order of performance of portions of eachrequested analysis based on such factors as data dependenciesthereamong, as well as allocating the use of containers 1336 in a mannerthat effectuates such a derived order of performance.

Where multiple instances of control routine 1354 are used to control theallocation of resources for performing requested analyses, such as theassignment of individual ones of the containers 1336 to be used inexecuting executable routines 1334 of each of multiple requestedanalyses, it may be that each requested analysis is assigned to becontrolled by just one of the instances of control routine 1354. Thismay be done as part of treating each requested analysis as one or more“ACID transactions” that each have the four properties of atomicity,consistency, isolation and durability such that a single instance ofcontrol routine 1354 is given full control over the entirety of eachsuch transaction to better ensure that either all of each suchtransaction is either entirely performed or is entirely not performed.As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, allowing partialperformances to occur may cause cache incoherencies and/or datacorruption issues.

As additionally depicted, the control device(s) 1350 may communicatewith the requesting device(s) 1370 and with the node device(s) 1330through portions of a network 1399 extending thereamong. Again, such anetwork as the depicted network 1399 may be based on any of a variety ofwired and/or wireless technologies, and may employ any of a variety ofprotocols by which commands, status, data and/or still other varietiesof information may be exchanged. It may be that one or more instances ofa control routine 1354 cause the instantiation and maintenance of a webportal or other variety of portal that is based on any of a variety ofcommunication protocols, etc. (e.g., a restful API). Through such aportal, requests for the performance of various analyses may be receivedfrom requesting device(s) 1370, and/or the results of such requestedanalyses may be provided thereto. Alternatively or additionally, it maybe that one or more instances of a control routine 1354 cause theinstantiation of and maintenance of a message passing interface and/ormessage queues. Through such an interface and/or queues, individualcontainers 1336 may each be assigned to execute at least one executableroutine 1334 associated with a requested analysis to cause theperformance of at least a portion of that analysis.

Although not specifically depicted, it may be that at least one controlroutine 1354 may include logic to implement a form of management of thecontainers 1336 based on the Kubernetes container management platformpromulgated by Could Native Computing Foundation of San Francisco, CA,USA. In such embodiments, containers 1336 in which executable routines1334 of requested analyses may be instantiated within “pods” (notspecifically shown) in which other containers may also be instantiatedfor the execution of other supporting routines. Such supporting routinesmay cooperate with control routine(s) 1354 to implement a communicationsprotocol with the control device(s) 1350 via the network 1399 (e.g., amessage passing interface, one or more message queues, etc.).Alternatively or additionally, such supporting routines may serve toprovide access to one or more storage repositories (not specificallyshown) in which at least data objects may be stored for use inperforming the requested analyses.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D, 14E and 14F, together, illustrate twodifferent example embodiments of a processing system 2000 and frameworkfor the performance of multiple operations to convert speech to textand/or to derive insights from such text. Each of these two processingsystems 2000 incorporates one or more storage devices 2100 that may forma storage grid 2001, one or more node devices 2300 that may form of anode device grid 2003, at least one control device 2500 and/or at leastone requesting device 2700, all coupled by a network 2999. However,aspects of the manner in which the devices 2100, 2300, 2500 and/or 2700are used to perform these operations differ between these twoembodiments. More specifically, FIGS. 14A-C are block diagrams ofvarious aspects of an example embodiment of a distributed processingsystem 2000 in which, for each speech data set 3100 and/or for each textdata set 3700, the parallel processing of one or more operations iseffected through the use of multiple processors 2350 and/or cores 2351of processors 2350 across multiple node devices 2300. FIGS. 14D-F areblock diagrams of various aspects of an alternate example of adistributed processing system 2000 in which, for each speech data set3100 and/or each text data set 3700, parallel processing of variousoperations is effected through the use of multiple threads 2454 acrossone or more processors 2350 and/or cores 2351 of processor(s) 2350within a single one of the node devices 2300.

For both embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14A-C and of FIGS. 14D-F, the storage device(s) 2100 may store one ormore speech data sets 3100 in which speech audio may be stored in any ofa variety of digital audio storage formats. Where there are multiplestorage devices 2100, at least a subset of the one or more speech datasets 3100 may be stored in a distributed manner in which differentportions thereof are stored within different ones of the storage devices2100. As will be explained in greater detail, in support of theperformance of pre-processing operations, of speech-to-text processingoperations and/or of text analytics post-processing operations, a speechdata set 3100 may be divided into data chunks 3110 that each represent achunk of the speech audio of the speech data set 3100, and/or may bedivided into data segments 3140 that each represent a speech segment ofthat speech audio. Those data chunks 3110 and/or those data segments3140 may then be provided to either a single node device 2300 ormultiple ones of the node devices 2300, depending on which of thedistributed processing systems 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C or 14D-F isimplemented.

The storage device(s) 2100 may also store one or more corpus data sets3400 that each represent a language model implemented as a corpus of aparticular language, and/or one or more text data sets 3700 that eachrepresent a transcript of speech audio that may each have beenoriginally stored as a speech data set 3100. As with the one or morespeech data sets 3100, where there are multiple storage devices 2100, atleast a subset of the one or more corpus data sets 3400, and/or at leasta subset of the one or more text data sets 3700, may be stored in adistributed manner in which different portions thereof are stored withindifferent ones of the storage devices 2100. In support of distributedspeech-to-text processing operations, and/or in support of distributedtext analytics post-processing operations, multiple copies of theentirety of a corpus data set 3400 may be provided to either multiplenode devices 2300 of the distributed processing system of FIGS. 14A-C,or multiple threads 2454 of a single one of the node devices 2300 of thedistributed processing system of FIGS. 14D-F.

Thus, in support of such operations, the devices 2100, 2300, 2500 and/or2700 may exchange such portions of a speech data set 3100, may exchangecopies of a corpus data set 3400, and/or may exchange other informationconcerning speech audio pre-processing operations, speech-to-textconversion and/or text analyses through the network 2999. In variousembodiments, the network 2999 may be a single network that may extendwithin a single building or other relatively limited area, a combinationof connected networks that may extend a considerable distance, and/ormay include the Internet. Thus, the network 2999 may be based on any ofa variety (or combination) of communications technologies by whichcommunications may be effected, including without limitation, wiredtechnologies employing electrically and/or optically conductive cabling,and wireless technologies employing infrared, radio frequency (RF) orother forms of wireless transmission.

Each of the speech data sets 3100 may be any of a variety of types ofdigital data representation of any of a variety of types of speechaudio. Such representations of speech audio may include a series ofamplitude values of one or more audio channels of any of a variety ofbit widths (e.g., 8-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit, 20-bit or 24-bit), captured atany of a variety of sampling rates (e.g., 41.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz or96 kHz), and stored in any of a variety of widely used compressed oruncompressed audio data formats (e.g., MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Grouplayer 3), WAV (Waveform Audio), PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation), FLAC (FreeLossless Audio Codec)), Dolby Digital or TrueHD of Dolby Laboratories ofSan Francisco, California, USA, or THX Ultra2 or Select2 of THX Ltd. ofSan Francisco, California, USA). In some embodiments, the speech dataset 3100 may include other data beyond speech audio, such ascorresponding video, corresponding still images (e.g., a correspondingslide show of still images), alternate corresponding speech audio in adifferent language, etc. In some of such embodiments, the speech dataset 3100 may be any of a variety of types of “container” format or otherdata format that supports the provision of a multimedia or othercombined audio and video presentation (e.g., MP4 of the InternationalOrganization for Standardization of Geneva, Switzerland).

The speech audio that is so represented within each speech data set 3100may include any of a variety of types of speech made up of words thatspoken by one or more speakers, including and not limited to, telephoneand/or radio conversations (e.g., telephone service calls, or airtraffic control communications), telephone messages or other forms ofvoice mail, audio from in-person and/or remote conferences, lecturespeech, podcasts, audio tracks from entertainment programs that includespeech audio (e.g., audio from movies or from musical performances),verbal narrations of stories and/or of events in progress (e.g.,narrations of sports events or other news events), and/or verbalcommands to local electronic devices and/or to servers providing onlineservices, etc.

To be clear, the term “speaker” as used herein to refer to source(s) ofthe speech audio that is represented by the speech data set(s) 3100 isenvisioned as referring to talking people (human beings). As will beexplained in greater detail, various characteristics of the speechsounds produced by the vocal tracts of each such person (along with thelanguage(s) they speak and/or the accent(s) they speak with) may berelied upon in identifying sentence pauses and/or in identifyingindividual speakers. However, it should be noted that, in someembodiments, one or more speakers of speech audio represented by aspeech data set 3100 may be a machine-based speaker (e.g., a computer orother electronic device employing speech-to-text synthesizer componentsto generate synthesized speech sounds). Alternatively or additionally,it may be that one or more speakers of speech audio represented by aspeech data set 3100 may be a non-human animal that may have learned togenerate human speech sounds (e.g., a parrot or a great ape).

At least a subset of the speech data sets 3100 stored by the one or morestorage devices 2100 may each represent a stored recording of speechaudio that was fully captured at an earlier time. Thus, such speech dataset(s) 3100 may represent speech audio that may have been recordedeither relatively recently (e.g., within recent minutes or hours), orlong ago (e.g., weeks, months or years earlier). Alternatively oradditionally, at least another subset of the speech data sets 3100 mayeach represent just a stored portion of speech audio that is still inthe process of being captured. Thus, such speech data set(s) 3100 mayserve, at least temporarily, as buffer(s) of portions of ongoing speechaudio that have already been captured, with more portions thereof stillin the process of being captured.

It is envisioned that at least a subset of the speech data sets 3100 maybe sufficiently large in size such that storage and/or processing of theentirety thereof within a single device may be deemed to be at leastimpractical, if not impossible. Therefore, to facilitate storage and/orprocessing of such larger speech data sets 3100 in a distributed manneracross multiple devices, each of such larger speech data sets 3100 maybe divided into multiple portions that may be distributed among multiplestorage devices 2100 and/or among multiple node devices 2300.

In some embodiments, multiple ones of the storage devices 2100 may beoperated together (e.g., as a network-attached drive array, etc.)primarily for the purpose of persistently storing data, such as the oneor more speech data sets 3100. In such embodiments, the multiple storagedevices 2100 may be capable of exchanging the entirety of a relativelylarge speech data set 3100 with multiple node devices 2300 in a set ofdata transfers of portions thereof (e.g., data chunks 3110 thereof, ordata segments 3140 thereof) performed at least partially in parallelthrough the network 2999, and such transfers may be coordinated by thecontrol device 2500. In some embodiments, processor(s) of the one ormore storage devices 2100 may each independently implement a local filesystem by which at least relatively small speech data sets 3100 may eachbe stored entirely within a single one of the storage devices 2100.Alternatively or additionally, multiple ones of the storage devices 2100may cooperate through the network 2999 to implement a distributed filesystem to store larger speech data sets 3100 as multiple portions in adistributed manner across multiple ones of the storage devices 2100. Asstill another alternative, it may be that one or more of the storagedevices 2100 store a combination of whole speech data sets 3100 that areof relatively small data size such that they are able to be storedentirely within a single storage device 2100, and a portion of at leastone speech data set 3100 that is too large in data size to be able to bestored entirely within any single one of the storage devices 2100.

Referring more specifically to FIGS. 14A-C, and the embodiment ofdistributed processing system 2000 depicted therein, each of themultiple node devices 2300 may incorporate one or more processors 2350,one or more neuromorphic devices 2355, a storage 2360, and/or a networkinterface 2390 to couple each of the node devices 2300 to the network2999. The processor(s) 2350 may incorporate multiple processing cores2351 and/or other features to support the execution of multipleexecutable routines and/or multiple instances of executable routine(s)across multiple execution threads. The storage 2360 may store controlroutines 2310, 2340 and/or 2370; one or more data chunks 3110; one ormore data segments 3140; and/or a corpus data set 3400.

Each of the control routines 2310, 2340 and 2370 may incorporate asequence of instructions operative on the processor(s) 2350 to implementlogic to perform various functions. In executing the control routine2310, the processor(s) 2350 of each of the node devices 2300 may becaused to perform various pre-processing operations, such asnormalization of the digital audio storage format in which the chunk ofspeech audio within each data chunk 3110 is stored, speaker diarizationto identify which speaker(s) spoke which portions of the speech audio ofthe speech data set 3100, and/or determining the manner in which aspeech data set 3100 is to be divided into data segments 3140 thereof asinput to speech-to-text processing operations. In executing the controlroutine 2340, the processor(s) 2350 of each of the node devices 2300 maybe caused to perform various speech-to-text processing operations, suchas feature detection to identify acoustic features within the speechsegment of each data segment 3140, using multiple instances of anacoustic model to identify likely graphemes, and/or use multipleinstances of an n-gram language model (stored as a corpus data set 3400)to assist in identifying likely words to generate a transcript of thespeech audio of the speech data set 3100, which may then be storedwithin the one or more storage devices 2100 as a corresponding text dataset 3700. In executing the control routine 2370, the processor(s) 2350of each of the node devices 2300 may be caused to perform variouspost-processing operations, such as text analytics to derive variousinsights concerning the contents of speech audio stored as a speech dataset 3100, and/or the generation of various visualizations for presentingsuch insights. Where such visualizations are generated by the nodedevices 2300 (and/or by the control device 2500), such visualizationsmay be stored as part of (or in a manner that accompanies) the textmetadata 3779. However, where such visualizations are to be subsequentlygenerated by the requesting device 2700, such generation of suchvisualizations may be based on the text metadata 3779.

In performing at least a subset of pre-processing operations, at least asubset of text-to-speech processing operations and/or at least a subsetof post-processing operations, the processor(s) 2350 of multiple ones ofthe node devices 2300 may be caused to perform such operations at leastpartially in parallel for a single speech data set 3100 and/or a singletext data set 3700. As has been explained, this may be at leastpartially due to the size of speech data set 3100. Alternatively oradditionally, this may be at least partially due to a need or desire toincrease the speed and/or efficiency with which one or more of suchoperations are performed, regardless of the size of a speech data set3100. Regardless of the motivation, such at least partially parallelperformances of such operations may be coordinated by the control device2500 through the network 2999.

As will also be explained in greater detail, at least a subset of thepre-processing operations, text-to-speech processing operations and/orpost-processing operations may employ neural network(s). In embodimentsof the node device(s) 2300 that incorporate the neuromorphic device(s)2355, the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 may be employed to implement oneor more of such neural networks in hardware, and the processor(s) 2350may be caused by one or more of the control routine(s) 2310, 2340 and/or2370 to configure the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 to do so. However, inembodiments of the node device(s) 2300 that do not incorporate theneuromorphic device(s) 2355, the processor(s) 2350 may, as analternative, be caused to execute routine(s) to implement such neuralnetworks in software.

The control device 2500 may incorporate one or more processors 2550, astorage 2560, and/or a network interface 2590 to couple the controldevice 2500 to the network 2999. The processor(s) 2550 may incorporatemultiple processing cores 2551 and/or other features to support theexecution of multiple executable routines and/or multiple instances ofexecutable routine(s) across multiple execution threads. The storage2560 may store control routines 2510, 2540 and/or 2570, a resourceroutine 2640, configuration data 2335, a text data set 3700 and/or textmetadata 3779.

Each of the control routines 2510, 2540 and 2570, and/or the resourceroutine 2640 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on theprocessor(s) 2550 to implement logic to perform various functions. Inexecuting the resource routine 2640, processor(s) 2550 of the controldevice 2500 may be caused to operate the network interface 2590 tomonitor the availability of processing, storage and/or other resourcesof each of the node devices 2300. The processor(s) 2550 of the controldevice 2500 may then use such information to determine what combinationof node devices 2300 is to be employed in performing pre-processingoperations and/or speech-to-text processing operations with each speechdata set 3100, and/or what combination of node devices 2300 is to beemployed in performing post-processing operations with each text dataset 3700.

In executing the control routine 2510, it may be that processor(s) 2550of the control device 2500 are caused to operate the network interface2590 to coordinate, via the network 2999, at least a subset of thepre-processing operations performed, at least partially in parallel, byprocessors 2350 of multiple ones of the node devices 2300 for eachspeech data set 3100 as a result of executing corresponding instances ofthe control routine 2310. More specifically, the processor(s) 2550 maybe caused to coordinate the performances of multiple pause detectiontechniques and/or speaker diarization techniques across multiple ones ofthe node devices 2300. Alternatively or additionally, as pause sets ofindications of likely sentence pauses are derived from the performanceof each pause detection technique, and/or as changes sets of indicationsof likely speaker changes are derived from the performance of at leastone speaker diarization technique, it may be that processor(s) 2550 ofthe control device 2500 are caused by the control routine 2510 to usethe pause sets and/or change sets received from node devices 2300 toderive a segmentation set 3119 of indications of the manner in which thespeech audio of a speech data set 3100 is to be divided into segments.

In executing the control routine 2540, it may be that processor(s) 2550of the control device 2500 are caused to operate the network interface2590 to coordinate, via the network 2999, at least a subset of thespeech-to-text processing operations performed, at least partially inparallel, by processors 2350 of multiple ones of the node devices 2300for each speech data set 3100 as a result of executing correspondinginstances of the control routine 2340. More specifically, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused to coordinate the generation of datasegments 3140 (or of sets of data segments 3140) among the node devices2300 based on the indications of likely sentence pauses within thesegmentation set 3119 derived earlier during pre-processing.Alternatively or additionally, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused tocoordinate the detection of acoustic features within the speech segmentof each of the data segments 3140, and/or to coordinate the use ofmultiple instances of an acoustic model to identify likely graphemesacross multiple ones of the node devices 2300. Alternatively oradditionally, as sets of probability distributions of likely graphemesare derived from such use of acoustic models, it may be that theprocessor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 are caused by the controlroutine 2540 to use the sets of probability distributions received frommultiple node devices 2300 as inputs to coordinate beam searches ofmultiple instances of an n-gram language model across multiple nodedevices 2300 (at least partially in parallel) to generate the transcriptof the speech audio of the speech data set 3100.

More specifically, and turning momentarily to a highly simplifiedexample presented in FIG. 14C, where the storage device(s) 2100 store atleast a speech data set 3100 x and another speech data set 3100 y, itmay be that the processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 are causedby execution of the resource routine 2640 to monitor the availability ofprocessing, storage and/or other resources of each of the node devices2300. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, each of the nodedevices 2300 may recurringly provide indications of such status to thecontrol device 2500 via the network 2999. The processor(s) 2550 of thecontrol device 2500 may use such information to identify a combinationof node devices 2300 (labeled as 2300 x 1 and 2300 x 2 in FIG. 14C) ashaving sufficient available resources as to be available for use inperforming pre-processing and/or speech-to-text processing operations togenerate a text data set 3700 from the speech data set 3100 x, and mayassign those node devices 2300 to do so. Similarly, the processor(s)2550 of the control device 2500 may use such information to identifyanother combination of node devices 2300 (labeled as 2300 y 1 and 2300 y2 in FIG. 14C) as having sufficient available resources as to beavailable for use in performing pre-processing and/or speech-to-textprocessing operations to generate another text data set 3700 from thespeech data set 3100 y, and may assign those node devices to do so. Itshould be noted that, although the set of node devices 2300 x 1 and 2300x 2 assigned to the speech data set 3100 x, and the set of node devices2300 y 1 and 2300 y 2 assigned to the speech data set 3100 y, aredepicted as not including any node devices 2300 that belong to bothsets, it is entirely possible that there may be one or more node devices2300 that are identified as having sufficient available resources as toallow their inclusion within more than one of such sets of node devices2300.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, of the variouspre-processing and processing operations that may be performed as partof converting speech to text, beam searches through a corpus thatimplements a language model have often been found to consume thegreatest quantities of processing and/or storage resources, such thatthe performance of beam searches are often found to be a persistentbottleneck in performances of speech-to-text conversion. In view ofthis, as also depicted in FIG. 14C, and as will be explained in greaterdetail, it is envisioned that it may be performances of beam searchesthrough a corpus data set 3400 that may be the one type ofspeech-to-text operation that would be most useful to arrange to beperformed in parallel across multiple node devices 2300. In view ofthis, and as depicted, it may be that multiple instances of at least abeam search component 2347 of the control routine 2340 may be executedat least partially in parallel by multiple processors 2350 acrossmultiple node devices 2300 for both the speech data set 3100 x and thespeech data set 3100 y.

Returning to FIGS. 14A-C, in executing the control routine 2570, theprocessor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may be caused to operatethe network interface 2590 to coordinate, via the network 2999, at leasta subset of post-processing operations performed, at least partially inparallel, by processors 2350 of multiple ones of the node device 2300for each text data set 3700 as a result of executing correspondinginstances of the control routine 2370. More specifically, the processors2550 may be caused to coordinate the distributed use of various forms oftext analytics among the node devices 2300 to derive insights concerningthe speech audio of the speech data set 3100.

Referring more specifically to FIGS. 14D-F, and the embodiment ofdistributed processing system 2000 depicted therein, each of themultiple node devices 2300 may incorporate one or more processors 2350,one or more neuromorphic devices 2355, a storage 2360, and/or a networkinterface 2390 to couple each of the node devices 2300 to the network2999. The processor(s) 2350 may incorporate multiple processing cores2351 and/or other features to support the execution of multipleexecutable routines and/or multiple instances of executable routine(s)across multiple threads 2454. The storage 2360 may store controlroutines 2310, 2340 and/or 2370; a resource routine 2440; one or moredata chunks 3110; one or more data segments 3140; a corpus data set3400; a text data set 3700 and/or text metadata 3779.

Each of the control routines 2310, 2340 and 2370, and/or the resourceroutine 2440 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on theprocessor(s) 2350 to implement logic to perform various functions. Inexecuting the resource routine 2440, processor(s) 2350 of a node device2300 may be caused to monitor the availability of processing resources(including threads 2454), storage resources and/or other resourceswithin that node device 2300. The processor(s) 2350 may then use suchinformation to determine what quantity of threads 2454 is to be employedin performing pre-processing operations and/or speech-to-text processingoperations with each speech data set 3100, and/or what quantity ofthreads 2454 is to be employed in performing post-processing operationswith each text data set 3700.

In executing the control routine 2310, the processor(s) 2350 of a nodedevices 2300 may be caused to perform various pre-processing operationsusing one or more threads 2454, such as normalization of the digitalaudio storage format in which the chunk of speech audio within each datachunk 3110 is stored, speaker diarization to identify which speaker(s)spoke which portions of the speech audio of the speech data set 3100,and/or determining the manner in which a speech data set 3100 is to bedivided into data segments 3140 thereof as input to speech-to-textprocessing operations. In executing the control routine 2340, theprocessor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300 may be caused to perform variousspeech-to-text processing operations using one or more threads 2454,such as feature detection to identify acoustic features within thespeech segment of each data segment 3140, using multiple instances of anacoustic model to identify likely graphemes, and/or use multipleinstances of an n-gram language model (stored as a corpus data set 3400)to assist in identifying likely words to generate a transcript of thespeech audio of the speech data set 3100, which may then be storedwithin the one or more storage devices 2100 as a corresponding text dataset 3700. In executing the control routine 2370, the processor(s) 2350of a node device 2300 may be caused to perform various post-processingoperations using one or more threads 2454, such as text analytics toderive various insights concerning the contents of speech audio storedas a speech data set 3100, and/or the generation of variousvisualizations for presenting such insights. Where such visualizationsare generated by the node device 2300, such visualizations may be storedas part of (or in a manner that accompanies) the text metadata 3779.However, where such visualizations are to be subsequently generated bythe requesting device 2700, such generation of such visualizations maybe based on the text metadata 3779.

In performing at least a subset of pre-processing operations, at least asubset of text-to-speech processing operations and/or at least a subsetof post-processing operations, the processor(s) 2350 of a node devices2300 may be caused to perform such operations at least partially inparallel across multiple threads 2454 for a single speech data set 3100and/or a single text data set 3700. As will be explained in greaterdetail, this may be at least partially due to experimental observationsthat the performance of particular operations, such as beam searches inspeech-to-text processing operations, tend to become bottlenecks, whileother operations are able to be performed significantly more quickly.

Again, as will also be explained in greater detail, at least a subset ofthe preprocessing operations, text-to-speech processing operationsand/or post-processing operations may employ neural network(s). Inembodiments of the node device(s) 2300 that incorporate the neuromorphicdevice(s) 2355, the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 may be employed toimplement one or more of such neural networks in hardware, and theprocessor(s) 2350 may be caused by one or more of the control routine(s)2310, 2340 and/or 2370 to configure the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 todo so. However, in embodiments of the node device(s) 2300 that do notincorporate the neuromorphic device(s) 2355, the processor(s) 2350 may,as an alternative, be caused to execute routine(s) to implement suchneural networks in software.

The control device 2500 may incorporate one or more processors 2550, astorage 2560, and/or a network interface 2590 to couple the controldevice 2500 to the network 2999. The processor(s) 2550 may incorporatemultiple processing cores 2551 and/or other features to support theexecution of multiple executable routines and/or multiple instances ofexecutable routine(s) across multiple execution threads. The storage2560 may store a resource routine 2640 and/or configuration data 2335.

The resource routine 2640 may incorporate a sequence of instructionsoperative on the processor(s) 2550 to implement logic to perform variousfunctions. In executing the resource routine 2640, processor(s) 2550 ofthe control device 2500 may be caused to operate the network interface2590 to monitor the availability of processing, storage and/or otherresources of each of the node devices 2300. In so doing, theprocessor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 and the processor(s) 2350of each of the node devices 2300 may be caused by execution of theresource routine 2640 and of the resource routine 2440, respectively, tocooperate to provide the processor(s) 2550 with indications of whetherthere are sufficient processing resources available within each nodedevice 2300 to support the allocation of an appropriate quantity ofthreads 2454 to the performance of pre-processing operations and/orspeech-to-text processing operations with another speech data set 3100,and/or to support the allocation of an appropriate quantity of threads2454 to the performance of post-processing operations with another textdata set 3700. The processor(s) 2550 may then use such information todetermine availability of node devices 2300 to perform pre-processingoperations and/or speech-to-text processing operations with a speechdata set 3100, and/or availability to perform post-processing operationswith a text data set 3700. The processor(s) 2550 of the control device2500 may also use such information to determine which single node device2300 to assign to perform such pre-processing and/or processingoperations with each speech data set 3100, and/or which single nodedevice 2300 to assign to perform such post-processing operations witheach text data set 3700.

More specifically, and turning momentarily to a highly simplifiedexample presented in FIG. 14F, where the storage device(s) 2100 store atleast three speech data sets 3100 x, 3100 y and 3100 z, it may be thatthe processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 are caused by executionof the resource routine 2640 to monitor the availability of processingresources (such as threads 2454), storage resources and/or otherresources of each of the node devices 2300. As previously discussed, theprocessor(s) 2350 within each of the node devices 2300 may be caused byexecution of the resource routine 2440 to recurringly provideindications of such status (perhaps as indications of available threads2454) to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. The processor(s)2550 of the control device 2500 may use such information to identify anode device 2300 (labeled as 2300 xy in FIG. 14F) as having sufficientavailable resources to support a sufficient quantity of threads 2454 asto be available for use in performing pre-processing and/orspeech-to-text processing operations to generate a text data set 3700from the speech data set 3100 x, and may assign that node device 2300 xyto do so. Similarly, the processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500may use such information to determine that the same node device 2300 xyis also available for use in performing pre-processing and/orspeech-to-text processing operations to generate another text data set3700 from the speech data set 3100 y, and may assign that node device2300 xy to do so. Also, similarly, the processor(s) 2550 of the controldevice 2500 may use such information to determine that another nodedevice 2300 (labeled as node device 2300 z in FIG. 14F) is available foruse in performing pre-processing and/or speech-to-text processingoperations to generate still another text data set 3700 from the speechdata set 3100 z, and may assign that node device 2300 z to do so.

Again, of the various pre-processing and processing operations that maybe performed as part of converting speech to text, beam searches througha corpus that implements a language model have often been found toconsume the greatest quantities of processing and/or storage resources,such that the performance of beam searches are often found to be apersistent bottleneck in performances of speech-to-text conversion. Inview of this, as also depicted in FIG. 14F, and as will be explained ingreater detail, it is envisioned that it may be performances of beamsearches through a corpus data set 3400 that may be the one type ofspeech-to-text operation that would be most useful to arrange to beperformed in parallel across multiple threads 2454. In view of this, andas depicted, it may be that multiple thread pools 2450 x, 2450 y and2450 z are formed, each made up of multiple threads 2454, to enablemultiple instances of at least a beam search component 2347 of thecontrol routine 2340 to be executed at least partially in parallel foreach one of the speech data sets 3100 x, 3100 y and 3100 z,respectively. As depicted, the thread pools 2450 x and 2450 y are eachformed entirely within the node device 2300 xy, and the thread pool 2450z is formed entirely within the node device 2300 z.

Referring again to both embodiments of the distributed processing system2000 of FIGS. 14A-C and 14D-F, the requesting device 2700 mayincorporate one or more of a processor 2750, a storage 2760, an inputdevice 2720, a display 2780, and a network interface 2790 to couple therequesting device 2700 to the network 2999. The storage 2760 may store acontrol routine 2740, a text data set 3700 and/or text metadata 3779.

The control routine 2740 may incorporate a sequence of instructionsoperative on the processor 2750 to implement logic to perform variousfunctions. In executing the control routine 2740, the processor 2750 ofthe requesting device 2700 may be caused to operate the input device2720 and/or the display 2780 to provide a user interface (UI) by whichan operator of the requesting device 2700 may transmit a request to thecontrol device 2500 to perform one or more operations that may includespeech-to-text conversion of the speech audio represented by a specifiedone of the speech data sets 3100 and/or that include the provision ofinsights concerning the contents of speech audio stored as a specifiedone of the speech data sets 3100. The processor 2750 may be subsequentlycaused to similarly provide a UI by which the operator of the requestingdevice 2700 is able to view the text of that speech audio upon receiptof its transcript in the form of a text data set 3700 from the controldevice 2500, and/or is able to view various derived insights concerningthe transcript. Again, in some embodiments, such visualizations may havebeen previously generated and then provided to the requesting device forpresentation to convey such insights. Alternatively or additionally, theprocessor 2750 may be caused to generate such visualizations frominformation contained within text metadata 3779 associated with a textdata set 3700.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, 15E and 15F, taken together, illustrate, ingreater detail, aspects of one implementation of an end-to-end frameworkwithin an embodiment of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14A-C to provide improved insights into the contents of speech audio.Within this implementation of the end-to-end framework across multipledevices 2300 and 2500, various pieces of information concerning speechaudio are routed through multiple processing operations in which data isanalyzed and transformed in multiple ways to derive a transcript of thecontents of the speech audio, and then to derive insights concerningthose contents. FIGS. 15A-B illustrates aspects of distributedpreprocessing operations that are performed across the control device2500 and multiple node devices 2300 to determine the manner in whichspeech audio stored as a speech data set 3100 is to be divided intospeech segments (represented as data segments 3140), or sets of speechsegments 3140, for speech-to-text processing operations. FIGS. 15C-Dillustrate aspects of distributed speech-to-text processing operationsthat are performed across the control device 2500 and multiple nodedevices 2300 to generate a transcript (stored as a text data set 3700)of what was spoken in the speech audio, including the use of a corpus ofa selected language (stored as a corpus data set 3400). FIGS. 15E-Fillustrate aspects of distributed text analytics post-processingoperations that are performed across the control device 2500 andmultiple node devices 2300 to derive insights (which may be stored astext metadata 3379) into the contents of the speech audio and/or toidentify transcripts (stored as other text data sets 3700) of otherrelated pieces of speech audio.

Turning to FIG. 15A, a speech data set 3100 representing speech audiospoken by one or more individuals in a digitally encoded form in storage(e.g., within the storage device(s) 2100) may be divided into a set ofmultiple chunks of the speech audio of equal length, represented as aset of multiple data chunks 3110. Such multiple data chunks 3110 maythen be provided to each of multiple node devices 2300 for pausedetection.

Within each of the multiple node devices 2300, a different pausedetection technique may be performed to proceed through the multiplechunks of speech audio represented by the multiple data chunks 3110 toidentify the longer pauses that typically occur between sentences. Itshould be noted that the division of the speech data set 3100 into themultiple data chunks 3110 may be necessary to accommodate input datasize limitations imposed by one or more of the pause detectiontechniques. Different components of, and/or different versions of, thecontrol routine 2310 may be executed within each node device 2300 of themultiple node devices 2300 to cause the performance of a different oneof the multiple pause detection techniques within each of those nodedevices 2300. As a result, within each of those node devices 2300, adifferent set of likely sentence pauses may be derived. Indications ofthe separately derived sets of likely sentence pauses may then beprovided to the control device 2500 by each of the multiple node devices2300 as a separate pause set 3116.

Turning to FIG. 15B, following the receipt of the multiple pause sets3116, the control device 2500 may provide copies of the multiple pausesets 3116 to the at least one node device 2350 that may perform aspeaker diarization technique. Again, just a single speaker diarizationtechnique may be performed in some embodiments, while multiple speakerdiarization techniques may be performed in other embodiments. Also inpreparation for the performance of at least one speaker diarizationtechnique, the speech data set 3100 may again be divided into a set ofmultiple chunks of the speech audio of equal length (again representedas a set of multiple data chunks 3110). Such multiple data chunks 3110may then be provided to each of the one or more node devices 2300 thatis to perform a speaker diarization technique.

Within each node device 2300 that is to perform a speaker diarizationtechnique, the division of the speech data set 2310 into multiple datachunks 3110 may again be necessary to accommodate input data sizelimitations imposed by a speaker diarization technique. Differentcomponents of, and/or different versions of, the control routine 2310may be executed within each node device 2300 of the at least one nodedevice 2300 that performs a speaker diarization technique to detectinstances of a likely change of speaker in the speech audio. As aresult, within each node device 2300 of the at least one node device2300, a different set of likely speaker changes may be derived(although, again, as depicted, it may be that there is just one nodedevice 2300 that performs a speaker diarization technique, andtherefore, just one set of likely speaker changes is derived).Indications of the derived set of likely speaker changes from eachspeaker diarization technique may then be provided to the control device2500 as a separate change set 3118.

Within the control device 2500 the sets of indications of likelysentence pauses from the pause sets 3116 may be combined in any of avariety of ways to derive a single set of likely sentence pauses.Similarly, if more than one speaker diarization technique was performed,then the sets of indications of likely speaker changes from multiplechange sets 3118 may be similarly combined into a single set of likelyspeaker changes. The single set of likely sentence pauses and the singleset of likely speaker changes may then both be used to generate a singlesegmentation set 3119 of indications of the manner in which the speechdata set 3100 is to be divided into the segments that will be used asinputs to the subsequent text-to-speech processing operations to beperformed.

Turning to FIG. 15C, following such pre-processing operations as aredescribed just above, the same speech data set 3100 representing thesame speech audio may be divided, again, but now into a set of multiplespeech segments that are each represented by a data segment 3140. Unlikethe division into multiple chunks of speech audio that did not in anyway take into account the content of the speech audio, the division ofthe speech audio into multiple speech segments may be based on theindications of where sentence pauses and/or speaker changes have beendeemed to be likely to be present within the speech audio, as indicatedby the segmentation set 3119.

Also unlike the provision of the same full set of multiple data chunks3110 to each of the multiple node devices 2300 in which a differentsegmentation technique was performed, each of multiple node devices 2300may be provided with one or more different ones of the data segments3140. Within each of the multiple node devices 2300 that are providedwith at least one of the data segments 3140, execution of the controlroutine 2340 may cause each such provided data segment 3140 to bedivided into multiple data frames 3141 of equal length. In so doing, thespeech segment represented by each of such data segments 3140 is dividedinto multiple speech frames that are each represented by one of the dataframes 3141. It should be noted that, since each of the data segments3140 are likely to be of a different size (as a result of each of thespeech segments represented thereby likely being of a different temporallength), the division of each data segment 3140 into multiple dataframes 3141 may result in different quantities of data frames 3141 beinggenerated from each data segment 3140.

Following the division of a data segment 3140 into multiple data frames3141 within each of the multiple node devices 2300, each of those dataframes 3141 may then be subjected to feature detection in which thespeech frame represented by each is analyzed to identify any occurrencesof one or more selected acoustic features therein. For each data frame3141, a corresponding feature vector 3142 may be generated that includesindications of when each identified acoustic feature was found to haveoccurred within the corresponding speech frame. Each feature vector 3142of the resulting set of feature vectors 3142 corresponding to the set ofdata frames 3141 of a single segment 3140 may then be provided as aninput to an acoustic model that is caused to be implemented within eachof the multiple node devices 2300 by further execution of the controlroutine 2340. The acoustic model may map each occurrence of a particularacoustic feature, or each occurrence of a particular sequence ofacoustic features, to one or more graphemes that may have beenpronounced and/or to a pause that may have occurred. More specifically,for each feature vector 3142, the acoustic model may generate one ormore probability distributions of one or more graphemes (which maycorrespond to one or more phonemes that may be represented bycorresponding text character(s)) that were pronounced, and/or one ormore pauses that occurred within the corresponding speech frame. Theprobability distributions so derived from all of the feature vectorsthat correspond to a single speech segment may be assembled together intemporal order to form a single probability distribution set 3143 thatcorresponds to that single speech segment.

Turning to FIG. 15D, each of the probability distribution sets 3143,following its generation within a different one of the multiple nodedevices 2300, may then be provided to the control device 2500. Also,each of the multiple node devices 2300 may be provided with a completecopy of a corpus data set 3400 that includes an n-gram language model.

Within the control device 2500, execution of the control routine 2540may cause the probability distributions of graphemes and/or of pauseswithin each of the probability distribution sets 3143 to be analyzed intemporal order to derive a set of up to a pre-selected quantity ofcandidate words that are each among the words that are each more likelyto be the next word that was spoken. Each word of this set of candidatewords may then be combined with up to a pre-selected quantity ofearlier-identified preceding words to form a corresponding set ofcandidate n-grams that are to be searched for within the corpus data set3400. The set of candidate n-grams may then be provided to the multiplenode devices 2300 to enable the performance of a beam search through thecorpus of the corpus data set 3400 in a distributed manner across themultiple node devices 2300, as will be explained in greater detail.

Within each of the multiple node devices 2300, in executing the controlroutine 2340, a different subset of the set of candidate n-grams issearched for within the corpus represented by the corpus data set 3400,as will also be explained in greater detail. Within each of the multiplenode devices 2300, as the probability for each candidate n-gram of thesubset is retrieved from the corpus of the corpus data set 3400 as aresult of the search, indications of those probabilities may betransmitted back to the control device 2500.

Within the control device 2500, following the receipt of theprobabilities for all of the candidate n-grams within the set ofcandidate n-grams from the node devices 2300, the one candidate n-gramwithin the set that has the highest probability may be identified. In sodoing, the corresponding candidate word out of the set of candidatewords is selected as being the word that was mostly likely the next wordspoken. That word may then be added to the transcript of the speechaudio of speech data set 3100, which may be stored within the controldevice 2500 as a text data set 3700.

Turning to FIG. 15E, following the generation of a complete transcriptof what was said in the speech audio of the speech data set 3100, thetranscript may be stored within the one or more storage devices 2100 asthe corresponding text data set 3700. The text data set 3700 may includean identifier of the speech data set 3100 from which the transcript ofthe text data set 3700 was derived.

Within the control device 2500, in executing the control routine 2570,various post-processing analyses may be performed of the text within thetranscript to identify such features as the one or more topics that werespoken about, the relative importance of each topic, indications ofsentiments, etc. More specifically, using the transcript of the textdata set 3700 as an input, one or more terms within the transcript (eachincluding one or more words) may be identified as having one or morequantifiable characteristics (e.g., counts of occurrences of each termand/or aggregate counts of multiple terms, degree of relevance of a termwithin the transcript, degree of strength of positive or negativesentiment about a term, etc.), and/or relational characteristics (e.g.,semantic and/or grammatical relationships among terms, whether detectedsentiment about a term is positive or negative, etc.)

In some embodiments, the entirety of the transcript may be provided toeach of multiple ones of the node devices 2300 to enable each to performa different post-processing analysis on the entirety of the transcript.As part of one or more of such analyses, sets of n-grams from thetranscript may be provided to the multiple node devices 2300 to besearched for within the corpus data set 3400 as part of using n-gramprobabilities in identifying topics, indications of sentiments abouttopics, etc. Regardless of the exact types of text analyses that areperformed, and regardless of the exact manner in which each textanalysis is performed, the various insights that may be derived fromsuch analyses may be assembled as corresponding text metadata 3779 thatmay also be stored within the one or more storage devices 2100.

Turning to FIG. 15F, following the derivation of the text metadata 3779corresponding to the text data set 3700, further execution of thecontrol routine 2570 may cause the retrieval of text metadata 3779corresponding to other text data sets 3700 that correspond to otherspeech data sets 3100. Such other text metadata 3779 may be analyzed toidentify relationships among words, text chunks, utterances, topics,etc. that may lead to the identification of other text data sets 3700generated from other speech data sets 3100 that may be deemed to berelated.

In further executing the control routine 2570, the control device 2500may be cause to provide the text data set 3700, the corresponding textmetadata 3779, and/or text metadata 3779 of other related speech dataset(s) 3100 and/or text data set(s) 3700 to the requesting device 2700.It may be that the request to provide various insights into what wasspoken in the speech audio of the speech data set 3100 was received bythe control device 2500 from the requesting device 2700. In executingthe control routine 2740, images of the transcript of the text data set3700, various visualizations of aspects of the contents thereofindicated in the corresponding text metadata 3779, and/or visualizationsof identified relationships to other transcripts of other speech audiomay be presented to an operator of the requesting device 2700.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E and 16F, taken together, illustrate, ingreater detail, aspects of one implementation of an end-to-end frameworkwithin an embodiment of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14D-F to provide improved insights into the contents of speech audio.Within this implementation of the end-to-end framework across multiplethreads within a single node device 2300, various pieces of informationconcerning speech audio are routed through multiple processingoperations in which data is analyzed and transformed in multiple ways toderive a transcript of the contents of the speech audio, and then toderive insights concerning those contents. FIGS. 16A-C illustratesaspects of distributed pre-processing operations that may be performedacross multiple threads within a single node device 2300 to determinethe manner in which speech audio stored as a speech data set 3100 is tobe divided into speech segments (represented as data segments 3140), orsets of speech segments 3140, for speech-to-text processing operations.FIGS. 16D-E illustrate aspects of distributed speech-to-text processingoperations that may be performed across multiple threads within a singlenode device 2300 to generate a transcript (stored as a text data set3700) of what was spoken in the speech audio, including the use of acorpus of a selected language (stored as a corpus data set 3400). FIG.16F illustrates aspects of distributed text analytics post-processingoperations that may be performed across multiple threads within a singlenode device 2300 to derive insights (which may be stored as textmetadata 3379) into the contents of the speech audio and/or to identifytranscripts (stored as other text data sets 3700) of other relatedpieces of speech audio.

Turning to FIG. 16A, a speech data set 3100 representing speech audiospoken by one or more individuals in a digitally encoded form in storage(e.g., within the storage device(s) 2100) may be divided into a set ofmultiple chunks of the speech audio of equal length, represented as aset of multiple data chunks 3110. Such multiple data chunks 3110 maythen be provided to each of one or more threads 2454 within a singlenode device 2300 for pause detection.

It may be that within each of the one or more threads 2454 within asingle node device 2300, a different pause detection technique may beperformed to proceed through the multiple chunks of speech audiorepresented by the multiple data chunks 3110 to identify the longerpauses that typically occur between sentences. Again, the division ofthe speech data set 3100 into the multiple data chunks 3110 may benecessary to accommodate input data size limitations imposed by one ormore of the pause detection techniques. Different components of, and/ordifferent versions of, the control routine 2310 may be executed withineach of the one or more threads 2454 to cause the performance of adifferent one of the multiple pause detection techniques within each ofthose threads 2454. As a result, within each of those threads 2454, adifferent set of likely sentence pauses may be derived.

Turning to FIG. 16B, the multiple pause sets 3116 may then be providedto each of one more threads 2545 within the same node device 2300 toperform one or more speaker diarization techniques. Just a singlespeaker diarization technique may be performed within a single thread2545 in some embodiments, while multiple speaker diarization techniquesmay each be performed within a separate thread 2545 in otherembodiments. Also in preparation for the performance of at least onespeaker diarization technique, the speech data set 3100 may again bedivided into a set of multiple chunks of the speech audio of equallength (again represented as a set of multiple data chunks 3110). Suchmultiple data chunks 3110 may then be provided to each of the one ormore threads 2545 in which a speaker diarization technique is to beperformed.

Within each thread 2545 in which a speaker diarization technique is tobe performed, the division of the speech data set 2310 into multipledata chunks 3110 may again be necessary to accommodate input data sizelimitations imposed by a speaker diarization technique. Differentcomponents of, and/or different versions of, the control routine 2310may be executed within each thread 2545 of the one or more threads 2545in which a speaker diarization technique is performed to detectinstances of a likely change of speaker in the speech audio. As aresult, within each such thread 2545, a different set of likely speakerchanges may be derived (although, again, as depicted, it may be thatthere is just one thread 2545 in which a speaker diarization techniqueis performed, and therefore, just one set of likely speaker changes isderived).

Turning to FIG. 16C, within the same single node device 2300, the setsof indications of likely sentence pauses from the pause sets 3116 may becombined in any of a variety of ways to derive a single set of likelysentence pauses. Similarly, if more than one speaker diarizationtechnique was performed, then the resulting change sets 3118 ofindications of likely speaker changes may be similarly combined into asingle set of likely speaker changes. The single set of likely sentencepauses and the single set of likely speaker changes may then both beused to generate a single segmentation set 3119 of indications of themanner in which the speech data set 3100 is to be divided into thesegments that will be used as inputs to the subsequent text-to-speechprocessing operations to be performed.

Turning to FIG. 16D, following such pre-processing operations as aredescribed just above, the same speech data set 3100 representing thesame speech audio may be divided, again, but now into a set of multiplespeech segments that are each represented by a data segment 3140. Again,unlike the division into multiple chunks of speech audio that did not inany way take into account the content of the speech audio, the divisionof the speech audio into multiple speech segments may be based on theindications of where sentence pauses and/or speaker changes have beendeemed to be likely to be present within the speech audio, as indicatedby the segmentation set 3119.

It may be that all data segments 3140 are initially provided to a singlethread 2545 within the single node device 2300 for feature and graphemedetection. Alternatively, it may be that different subsets of the datasegments 3140 are each provided to a different thread 2545 of multiplethreads for at least partially parallel performances of feature andgrapheme detection. Within each of such one or more threads 2454,execution of the control routine 2340 may cause each such provided datasegment 3140 to be divided into multiple data frames 3141 of equallength. In so doing, the speech segment represented by each of such datasegments 3140 is divided into multiple speech frames that are eachrepresented by one of the data frames 3141. It should be noted that,since each of the data segments 3140 are likely to be of a differentsize (as a result of each of the speech segments represented therebylikely being of a different temporal length), the division of each datasegment 3140 into multiple data frames 3141 may result in differentquantities of data frames 3141 being generated from each data segment3140.

Following the division of a data segment 3140 into multiple data frames3141 within each of such threads 2454, each of those data frames 3141may then be subjected to feature detection in which the speech framerepresented by each data frame 3141 is analyzed to identify anyoccurrences of one or more selected acoustic features therein. For eachdata frame 3141, a corresponding feature vector 3142 may be generatedthat includes indications of when each identified acoustic feature wasfound to have occurred within the corresponding speech frame. Eachfeature vector 3142 of the resulting set of feature vectors 3142corresponding to the set of data frames 3141 of a single segment 3140may then be provided as an input to an acoustic model that is caused tobe implemented within the single node device 2300 by further executionof the control routine 2340. Again, the acoustic model may map eachoccurrence of a particular acoustic feature, or each occurrence of aparticular sequence of acoustic features, to one or more graphemes thatmay have been pronounced and/or to a pause that may have occurred.Again, for each feature vector 3142, the acoustic model may generate oneor more probability distributions of one or more graphemes (which maycorrespond to one or more phonemes that may be represented bycorresponding text character(s)) that were pronounced, and/or one ormore pauses that occurred within the corresponding speech frame. Theprobability distributions so derived from all of the feature vectorsthat correspond to a single speech segment may be assembled together intemporal order to form a single probability distribution set 3143 thatcorresponds to that single speech segment.

Turning to FIG. 16E, the multiple probability distribution sets 3143,after being generated all within a single thread 2454 or across multiplethreads 2454 within the node devices 2300, may then be distributed amongmultiple threads 2545. As previously discussed, it is the speech-to-textoperations that have been found to consume the greatest amounts ofprocessing resources, especially performances of beam searches. Thus,although the use of multiple threads 2454 has been discussed above asbeing potentially used for various pre-processing operations, it isenvisioned that multiple threads 2454 within the single node device 2300may be used primarily to enable at least beam searches to be performedat least partially in parallel to alleviate potential bottlenecksarising from the performance of this part of the speech-to-textoperations.

As will be explained in greater detail, a queue may be instantiated andmaintained for use in distributing individual probability distributionsets 3143 among multiple threads in temporal order as each of thosemultiple threads become available to accept a probability distributionset 3143 as an input. Within each of those multiple threads 2545,execution of the control routine 2340 may cause the probabilitydistribution of graphemes and/or of pauses within the probabilitydistribution set 3143 that is assigned to that thread 2454 to beanalyzed to derive a set of up to a pre-selected quantity of candidatewords that are each among the words that are each more likely to be thenext word that was spoken. Each word of this set of candidate words maythen be combined with up to a pre-selected quantity ofearlier-identified preceding words to form a corresponding set ofcandidate n-grams that are to be searched for within the corpus data set3400. Beam searches may then be performed through the corpus of thecorpus data set 3400 to retrieve a probability for each candidate n-gramto identify tine candidate n-gram within the set that has the highestprobability. The corresponding candidate word out of the set ofcandidate words is then selected as being the word that was mostlylikely the next word spoken. That word may then be added to thetranscript of the speech audio of speech data set 3100, which may bestored within the control device 2500 as a text data set 3700.

Turning to FIG. 16F, following the generation of a complete transcriptof what was said in the speech audio of the speech data set 3100, thetranscript may be stored within the one or more storage devices 2100 asthe corresponding text data set 3700. The text data set 3700 may includean identifier of the speech data set 3100 from which the transcript ofthe text data set 3700 was derived.

Following the generation of the corresponding text data set 3700, it maybe that various post-processing analyses may be performed of the textwithin the transcript to identify such features as the one or moretopics that were spoken about, the relative importance of each topic,indications of sentiments, etc. More specifically, using the transcriptof the text data set 3700 as an input, one or more terms within thetranscript (each including one or more words) may be identified ashaving one or more quantifiable characteristics (e.g., counts ofoccurrences of each term and/or aggregate counts of multiple terms,degree of relevance of a term within the transcript, degree of strengthof positive or negative sentiment about a term, etc.), and/or relationalcharacteristics (e.g., semantic and/or grammatical relationships amongterms, whether detected sentiment about a term is positive or negative,etc.)

In some embodiments, the entirety of the transcript may be provided to asingle node device 2300. It may be that the transcript is provided inits entirety to each of multiple threads 2454 to enable each one of aset of different post-processing analyses to be performed at leastpartially in parallel on the entirety of the transcript. As part of oneor more of such analyses, sets of n-grams from the transcript may beprovided to such one or more threads 2454 to be searched for within thecorpus data set 3400 as part of using n-gram probabilities to identifytopics, indications of sentiments about topics, etc. Regardless of theexact types of text analyses that are performed, and regardless of theexact manner in which each text analysis is performed, the variousinsights that may be derived from such analyses may be assembled ascorresponding text metadata 3779 that may also be stored within the oneor more storage devices 2100.

Again, following the derivation of the text metadata 3779 correspondingto the text data set 3700, the text metadata 3779 may be analyzed toidentify relationships among words, text chunks, utterances, topics,etc. that may lead to the identification of other text data sets 3700generated from other speech data sets 3100 that may be deemed to berelated. The text data set 3700, the corresponding text metadata 3779,and/or text metadata 3779 of other related speech data set(s) 3100and/or text data set(s) 3700 may be provided to the requesting device2700. Again, in executing the control routine 2740, images of thetranscript of the text data set 3700, various visualizations of aspectsof the contents thereof indicated in the corresponding text metadata3779, and/or visualizations of identified relationships to othertranscripts of other speech audio may be presented to an operator of therequesting device 2700.

FIGS. 17A, 17B and 17C, taken together, illustrate an example of use ofan adaptive peak amplitude (APA) pause detection technique as part ofperforming preprocessing operations to derive a manner of dividing thespeech audio of a speech data set 3100 into segments (each representedin storage by a data segment 3140). FIG. 17A illustrates the initialdivision of the speech data set 3100 into data chunks 3110 a that eachrepresent a chunk of the speech audio of the speech data set 3100, andthe measurement of peak amplitude levels to derive a threshold amplitude2232. FIG. 17B illustrates the use of the threshold amplitude 2232 tocategorize each of the data chunks 3110 a as either a speech data chunk3110 s or a pause data chunk 3110 p. FIG. 17C illustrates theidentification of sets of consecutive pause data chunks 3110 p thatrepresent likely sentence pauses for inclusion in a pause set 3116 a ofindications of likely sentence pauses within the speech audio of thespeech data set 3100.

As previously discussed, in the distributed processing system 2000depicted in FIGS. 14A-C, it may be that, for each speech data set 3110,each one of multiple pause detection techniques is assigned to beperformed by a different one of the node devices 2300. Thus, each one ofsuch assigned node devices 2300 derives a different pause set 3116 ofindications of likely sentence pauses for subsequent use as one of theinputs for deriving a segmentation set 3119 of indications of segmentsinto which the speech data set 3100 is to be divided.

Alternatively, and as also previously discussed, in the distributedprocessing system 2000 depicted in FIGS. 14D-F, it may be that, for eachspeech data set 3110, each of the multiple pause detection techniques isassigned to be performed within a separate one of multiple executionthreads 2454 supported by processor(s) 2350 of a single node device2300. Thus, each of the multiple pause sets 3116 of indications oflikely sentence pauses would be derived on a different one of thoseassigned threads 2454 within the single node device 2300. However, asalso discussed in reference to the distributed processing system 2000 ofFIGS. 14D-F, it may be that, for each speech data set 3110, multipleones of the pause detection techniques are performed on a single thread2454 within a single node device 2300, while other operations thatconsume greater resources (e.g., beam searches) may be performed acrossmultiple threads 2454 within the same single node device 2300.

Turning to FIG. 17A, in executing a division component 2311 of thecontrol routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300 aallocated for performing this APA pause detection technique, or of anode device 2300 on which multiple pause detection techniques areperformed, may be caused to divide a speech data set 3100 into multipledata chunks 3110 a. In so doing, an indication of the length of thespeech audio that is to be represented by each data chunk 3110 a may beretrieved from the configuration data 2335 in embodiments in which atleast the majority of the data chunks 3110 a are to represent audio ofequal length.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the pre-processingoperations may also include normalizing the digital format in which thespeech audio is stored as a speech data set 3100. Thus, it may be, thatprior to or as part of dividing the speech audio into chunks, thedigital format in which the speech audio is stored as the speech dataset 3100 may be changed to a pre-selected format that specifies one ormore of a particular sampling frequency, data width and/or type of datavalue per sample, a particular type of compression (or no compression),etc. It may be that such a pre-selected format is necessitated for sakeof compatibility with one or more components for performing one or moreof the pre-processing operations, and/or one or more of the processingoperations of the speech-to-text conversion.

In executing an amplitude component 2312 of the control routine 2310,processor(s) 2350 may be caused to analyze each of the data chunks 3110a to measure the peak amplitude of the chunk of speech audio presentwithin each. With all of the peak amplitudes across all of the datachunks 3110 a so measured, a level of amplitude of a preselectedpercentile of all of the peak amplitudes may be derived and used as athreshold amplitude 2232. In so doing, an indication of the preselectedpercentile may be retrieved from the configuration data 2335.

As previously discussed, it may be that the multiple pause detectiontechniques are assigned relative weighting factors that are used incombining the resulting multiple pause sets 3116 of likely sentencepauses to derive the segmentation set 3119 of indications of the mannerin which the speech data set 3100 is to be divided to form segments, andit may be that the relative weighting factors are adjusted based on thelevel of audio noise that is present across the chunks of the speechaudio. In such embodiments, and as depicted, it may be that execution ofthe amplitude component 2312 also causes the measurement of the level ofaudio noise in the chunk of speech audio within each of the data chunks3110 a, and causes the derivation of an audio noise level 3112 that isin some way representative of the level of audio noise present withinthe entire speech audio. In various embodiments, the audio noise level3112 may be indicative of the minimum level of audio noise measuredacross all of the data chunks 3110 a, an average thereof, and/or of anyof a variety of other characteristics of audio noise.

Turning to FIG. 17B, in executing a categorization component 2315 of thecontrol routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 may be caused to use thethreshold amplitude 2232 to categorize each of the data chunks 3110 a aseither a speech data chunk 3110 s or a pause data chunk 3110 p. Morespecifically, all of the data chunks 3110 a that each represent a chunkof speech audio with a measured peak amplitude above the thresholdamplitude 2232 are deemed to be speech data chunks 3110 s, while all ofthe data chunks 3110 a that each represent a chunk of the speech audiowith a measured peak amplitude below the threshold amplitude 2232 aredeemed to be pause data chunks 3110 p.

Turning to FIG. 17C, in executing a pause identification component 2317of the control routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 may be caused toadaptively identify longer pauses defined by larger quantities ofconsecutive pause data chunks 3110 p as likely sentence pauses. Morespecifically, and starting with the data chunk 3110 a that representsthe temporally earliest chunk of the speech audio of the speech data set3100, a window 2236 that covers a preselected quantity of temporallyconsecutive ones of the data chunks 3110 a may be shifted across thelength of the speech audio, starting with the temporally earliest datachunk 3110 a and proceeding throughout all of the data chunks 3110 a intemporal order toward the temporally last data chunk 3110 a. Thus, withthe window 2236 positioned to begin with the earliest data chunk 3110 a(regardless of whether it is a pause data chunk 3110 p or a speech datachunk 3110 s), measurements of the lengths of each pause represented bymultiple consecutive pause data chunks 3110 p within the window 2236 (ifthere are any pauses represented by multiple consecutive pause datachunks 3110 p within the window 2236) may be taken to identify thelongest pause thereamong. The longest pause that is so identified withinthe window 2236 (i.e., the pause represented by the greatest quantity ofconsecutive pause chunks 3110 p) may then be deemed likely to be asentence pause.

The window 2236 may then be shifted away from the earliest data chunk3110 a and along the data chunks 3110 of the speech audio in temporalorder so as to cause the window 2236 to next begin either amidst thejust-identified likely sentence pause (e.g., beginning at the midpointthereof) of just after the just-identified likely sentence pause (e.g.,as depicted, immediately after the temporally last data chunk of theconsecutive pause data chunks 3110 p that define the just-identifiedlikely sentence pause). With the window 2236 so repositioned, again,measurements of the lengths of each pause represented by multipleconsecutive pause data chunks 3110 p within the window 2236 may be takento again identify the longest pause thereamong. Again, the longest pausethat is so identified within the window (i.e., the pause represented bythe greatest quantity of consecutive pause chunks 3110 p within thewindow 2236) may be deemed likely to be a sentence pause. As depicted,this may be repeated until the window 2236 has been shifted along theentirety of the length of the speech audio (i.e., from the temporallyearliest data chunk 3110 a to the temporally latest data chunk 3110 a).

For each of the pauses that has been deemed a likely sentence pausewithin the speech audio 3100 using the APA technique, an indication ofthat likely sentence pause may be generated and stored as part of thepause set 3116 a. More precisely, indications of where each likelysentence pause starts and ends within the speech audio may be storedwithin the pause set 3116 a, and/or indications of where the midpoint ofeach likely sentence pause is located within the speech audio and/or itslength may be so stored. The manner in which such locations within thespeech audio are described may be as amounts of time from the beginningof the speech audio represented by the speech data set 3100.

In so identifying likely sentence pauses through such use of the window2236, it may be that an indication of what the length of the window 2236should be (i.e., how many consecutive data chunks 3110 a it should span)may be retrieved from the configuration data 2335. The length of thewindow 2236 may be selected to ensure that there cannot be a distancebetween the midpoints of any adjacent pair of likely sentence pausesthat is greater than a capacity limitation that may be present insubsequent processing operations of the speech-to-text conversion.Alternatively or additionally, the length of the window 2236 may beselected to increase the likelihood that a sentence pause will beidentified each time the window 2236 is re-positioned, based on thetypical length of sentences in whichever language is used for the speechaudio.

Further, in some embodiments, it may be that any instances of anadjacent pair of likely sentence pauses that are closer to each otherthan a predetermined threshold period of time are not permitted. Anindication of the length of the predetermined threshold period of time(which may also be expressed as a quantity of consecutive data chunks3110 a) may also be retrieved from the configuration data 2335. It maybe that, wherever such a pair of likely sentence pauses might occur,that an indication of one of the two likely sentence pauses may bedropped from those that are included in the pause set 3116 a. Theselection of which of two such likely sentence pauses is the one to bedropped may be based on which is shorter than the other, and/or may bebased on a requirement that the dropping of one or the other should notbe allowed to create a distance between any of two of the remaininglikely sentence pauses that is greater than the length of the window2236, which may be treated as an upper limit on the distance between anytwo of the likely sentence pauses.

FIGS. 18A and 18B, taken together, illustrate an example of use of aconnectionist temporal classification (CTC) pause detection technique aspart of performing pre-processing operations to derive a manner ofdividing the same speech audio of the same speech data set 3100 intosegments. FIG. 18A illustrates the initial division of the speech dataset 3100 into data chunks 3110 c that each represent a chunk of thespeech audio of the speech data set 3100, and the provision of thosedata chunks 3110 c as an input to an acoustic model neural network 2234with CTC output 2235. FIG. 18B illustrates the use of that acousticmodel neural network 2234 to identify likely sentence pauses forinclusion in a pause set 3116 c of indications of likely sentence pauseswithin the speech audio of the speech data set 3100.

Again, as previously discussed, in the distributed processing system2000 depicted in FIGS. 14A-C, it may be that, for each speech data set3110, each one of multiple pause detection techniques is assigned to beperformed within a different one of the node devices 2300. Thus, eachone of such assigned node devices 2300 derives a different pause set3116 of indications of likely sentence pauses for subsequent use as oneof the inputs for deriving a segmentation set 3119 of indications ofsegments into which the speech data set 3100 is to be divided.

Alternatively, and again, as also previously discussed, in thedistributed processing system 2000 depicted in FIGS. 14D-F, it may bethat, for each speech data set 3110, each of the multiple pausedetection techniques is assigned to be performed within a separate oneof multiple execution threads 2454 supported by processor(s) 2350 of asingle node device 2300. Thus, each of the multiple pause sets 3116 ofindications of likely sentence pauses would be derived on a differentone of those assigned threads 2454 within the single node device 2300.However, as also discussed in reference to the distributed processingsystem 2000 of FIGS. 14D-F, it may be that, for each speech data set3110, multiple ones of the pause detection techniques are performed on asingle thread 2454 within a single node device 2300, while otheroperations that consume greater resources (e.g., beam searches) may beperformed across multiple threads 2454 within the same single nodedevice 2300.

Turning to FIG. 18A, in executing the division component 2311 of thecontrol routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300 callocated for performing this CTC pause detection technique, or of anode device 2300 on which multiple pause detection techniques areperformed, may be caused to divide the same speech data set 3100 as wasfeatured in FIGS. 17A-C into multiple data chunks 3110 c. In so doing,an indication of the length of the speech audio that is to berepresented by each data chunk 3110 c may be retrieved from theconfiguration data 2335. It should be noted that the data chunks 3110 cof this CTC pause detection technique may not represent the same lengthof the speech audio as are represented by the data chunks 3110 a of theAPA pause detection technique of FIGS. 17A-C. Indeed, it is envisionedthat the data chunks 3110 c are each likely to represent a greaterlength of speech audio such that the speech audio represented by asingle one of the data chunks 3110 c may match the length of the speechaudio represented by multiple ones of the data chunks 3110 a.

Again, in some embodiments, the pre-processing of speech audio mayinclude normalizing the digital format in which the speech audio isstored as a speech data set 3100. Thus, it may again be that, prior toor as part of dividing the speech audio into chunks, the digital formatin which the speech audio is stored may be changed to a pre-selectedformat that specifies one or more of a particular sampling frequency,data width and/or type of data value per sample, a particular type ofcompression (or no compression), etc.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, at least some acousticmodels implemented using neural networks (and/or other technologies) mayaccept indications of detected audio features as input, instead ofaccepting audio data (e.g., the data chunks 3110 c) more directly asinput. To accommodate the use of such implementations of an acousticmodel, execution of the control routine 2310 may entail execution of afeature detection component 2313 to analyze the portion of speech audiorepresented by each data chunk 3110 c to identify instances of each of apre-selected set of acoustic features. In so doing, processor(s) 2350may be caused to generate a corresponding feature vector 3113 from eachdata chunk 3110 c that is analyzed. Each feature vector 3113 may includeindications of each acoustic feature that is identified and when itoccurred within the speech audio of the corresponding data chunk 3110 c.

In executing a configuration component 2314, processor(s) 2350 may becaused to instantiate and configure an acoustic model neural network2234 to implement an acoustic model. As previously discussed, and asdepicted, the acoustic model neural network 2234 incorporates a CTCoutput 2235, thereby augmenting the output of text characters by theacoustic model neural network 2234 with the output of blank symbols. Asalso previously discussed, in embodiments in which at least a subset ofthe node device(s) 2300 include one or more neuromorphic devices 2355,the acoustic model neural network 2234, along with its CTC output 2235,may be instantiated within one or more of the neuromorphic devices 2355such that the acoustic model neural network 2234 may be implemented inhardware. Alternatively, in embodiments that lack the incorporation ofneuromorphic devices, it may be that the acoustic model neural network2234 is implemented in software.

As previously discussed, an acoustic model neural network incorporatinga CTC output is normally used to accept indications of acoustic featuresdetected within speech audio, and to output indications of theprobabilities of which one or more text characters are likely tocorrespond to those acoustic features (e.g., probability distributionsfor text characters). With the addition of the CTC output, theprobabilistic indications of likely text characters are augmented withblank symbols that are intended to identify instances where there arelikely to be consecutive occurrences of the same text character (e.g.,the pair of “1” characters in the word “bell”), despite the absence ofan acoustic feature that would specifically indicate such a situation(e.g., no acoustic feature in the pronunciation of the “1” sound in theword “bell” that indicates that there are two consecutive “1” characterstherein).

Broadly, CTC outputs have been used to aid in temporally aligning asequence of indications of features that have been observed (e.g.,acoustic features in speech sounds, or visual features in handwriting),with a sequence of labels (e.g., text characters, phonemes and/orgraphemes) where there may be differences between the density of inputobservations over a period of time and the density of labels that areoutput for that same period of time. Such a CTC output has been used togenerate blank symbols that may be used as a guide in performing such analignment, including blank symbols that indicate where there may bemultiple ones of the same label that are consecutively output that mightotherwise be mistakenly merged into a single instance of that label (asin the above-described situation of a pair of “1” text characters thatshould not be merged). In this way, such multiple consecutive instancesof a label (e.g., of a text character) are able to be associated withwhat may be a single observation, or a single set of observations, thatmight otherwise be associated with only one instance of that label,thereby aiding in the proper aligning of the input and output sequences.

However, it has been observed (and then confirmed by experimentation)that such an acoustic model neural network with a CTC output may also beuseful in identifying sentence pauses. More specifically, it has beenobserved that, in addition to outputting single blank symbols for suchconsecutive instances of a text character, such a CTC output also has atendency to generate relatively long strings of consecutive blanksymbols that correspond quite well to where sentence pauses occur.

Turning to FIG. 18B, in so using the acoustic model neural network 2234for the detection of sentence pauses, each data chunk 3110 c is providedto the acoustic model neural network 2234 as an input. In executing thepause identification component 2316, processor(s) 2350 are caused tomonitor the CTC 2235 output for occurrences of strings of consecutiveblank symbols. FIG. 18B depicts an example of three consecutive datachunks 3110 c that each represent a different depicted portion of speechaudio that represent the words “Hello” and “Please leave a message”spoken as two separate sentences.

Turning to the provision of the first of the three data chunks 3110 cthat represents the speech sounds for portions of the words “Hello” and“Please” as an input to the acoustic model neural network 2234, theoutput thereof includes the letters therefor, accompanied by instancesfrom the CTC output 2235 of the blank symbol (indicated in FIG. 18Busing the “^” character) separating the corresponding characters. Asshown, a single instance of the blank symbol may be output between thetwo consecutive instances of the “1” character of the word “Hello”,thereby exemplifying the aforedescribed function for which the CTCoutput 2235 is typically relied upon to perform. However, as also shown,an instance of a relatively long string of consecutive blank symbols isalso output by the CTC output 2235 that corresponds with the sentencepause that occurs between these two words.

Turning to the provision of the second of the three data chunks 3110 cthat represents the speech sounds for another portion of the word“Please” and the entirety of each of the two words “leave” and “a” asinput to the acoustic model neural network 2234, the output thereofincludes the letters therefor, also accompanied by instances from theCTC output 2235 of the blank symbol separating the correspondingcharacters. As shown, two instances of a relatively short string ofconsecutive blank symbols are also output by the CTC output 2235 thateach correspond with one of the two pauses that occur between adjacentpairs of these three words.

Turning to the provision of the third of the three data chunks 3110 cthat represents the speech sounds for just the word “message” as inputto the acoustic model neural network 2234, the output includes theletters therefor, also accompanied by instances from the CTC output 2235of the blank symbol separating the corresponding characters. As shown, asingle instance of the blank symbol may be output between the twoconsecutive instances of the “s” character from this word, thereby againexemplifying the aforedescribed function for which the CTC output 2235is typically relied upon to perform.

As each of these outputs are provided by the acoustic model neuralnetwork 2234, the length of each string of consecutive blank symbolsthat may be present therein is compared (as a result of execution of thepause identification component 2316) to a threshold blank string length.Where a string of consecutive blank symbols in such an output is atleast as long as the threshold blank string length (e.g., the string ofblank symbols corresponding to the pause between the words “Hello” and“Please”), such a string of blank symbols may be deemed likely tocorrespond to a sentence pause. However, where a string of consecutivesymbols in such an output is not at least as long as the threshold blankstring (e.g., the strings of blank symbols between the words “Please”and “leave”, and between the words “leave” and “a”), such a string ofblank symbols may be deemed to not correspond to a sentence pause. Thus,in the example depicted in FIG. 18B, the pause between the words “Hello”and “Please” may be deemed to be a likely sentence pause, and anindication thereof may be included in the pause set 3116 c of likelysentence pauses.

In performing such comparisons of the lengths of strings of consecutiveblank symbols to the threshold blank string length, an indication of thethreshold blank string length may be retrieved from the configurationdata 2335. In some embodiments, the threshold blank string length mayhave been previously derived during training and/or testing of theacoustic model neural network 2234 to become part of configurationinformation stored within the configuration data 2335 for use ininstantiating and configuring the acoustic model neural network 2234with its CTC 2235 output. During such training, it may be that portionsof speech audio that are known to include pauses between sentences maybe used, and the lengths of the resulting strings of blank symbols thatcorrespond to those sentence pauses may be measured to determine whatthe threshold blank string length should be to enable its use indistinguishing pauses between sentences from at least pauses betweenwords.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C and 19D, taken together, illustrate an example ofuse of a speaker diarization technique based on the use of a speakerdiarization neural network 2237 as part of performing pre-processingoperations to derive a manner of dividing the same speech audio of thesame speech data set 3100 into segments. FIG. 19A illustrates theinitial division of the speech data set 3100 into data chunks 3110 dthat each represent a chunk of the speech audio of the speech data set3100, and the provision of those data chunks 3110 d as an input to aspeaker diarization neural network 2237, and the use of that speakerdiarization neural network 2237 to generate speaker vectors that areeach indicative of characteristics of a speaker who speaks in the speechaudio. FIGS. 19B-C, taken together, illustrate aspects of the use of thespeaker vectors as points in a performance of clustering within amultidimensional space to identify speakers. FIG. 19D illustrates thematching of speaker identities to speaker vectors to identify likelyspeaker changes for inclusion in a change set 3118 of indications oflikely speaker changes within the speech audio of the speech data set3100.

As has been discussed, unlike the aforedescribed use of multiple pausedetection techniques to identify likely sentence pauses, it may be thatjust one speaker diarization technique (such as the particular techniquethat is about be described in reference to FIGS. 19A-D) may be used.However, as also discussed, other embodiments are possible in whichthere may be multiple different speaker diarization techniques used,such that there may be multiple separate change sets 3118 that areseparately and independently generated in a manner akin to what has beendiscussed above in generating multiple separate pause sets 3116.

Therefore, and as previously discussed, in the distributed processingsystem 2000 depicted in FIGS. 14A-C, it may be that, for each speechdata set 3110, each speaker diarization technique of the at least onespeaker diarization technique is assigned to be performed within adifferent one of the node devices 2300. Thus, each one of such assignednode devices 2300 derives a different change set 3118 of indications oflikely changes in speaker for subsequent use as one of the inputs forderiving a segmentation set 3119 of indications of segments into whichthe speech data set 3100 is to be divided.

Alternatively, and as also previously discussed, in the distributedprocessing system 2000 depicted in FIGS. 14D-F, it may be that, for eachspeech data set 3110, each of the one or more speaker diarizationtechniques is assigned to be performed within a separate one of multipleexecution threads 2454 supported by processor(s) 2350 of a single nodedevice 2300. Thus, each of the multiple change sets 3118 of indicationsof likely speaker changes would be derived on a different one of thoseassigned threads 2454 within the single node device 2300. However, asalso discussed in reference to the distributed processing system 2000 ofFIGS. 14D-F, it may be that, for each speech data set 3110, multiplespeaker diarization techniques are performed on a single thread 2454within a single node device 2300, while other operations that consumegreater resources (e.g., beam searches) may be performed across multiplethreads 2454 within the same single node device 2300.

Turning to FIG. 19A, in executing the division component 2311 of thecontrol routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300 dallocated for performing this speaker diarization technique, or of anode device 2300 on which one or more speaker diarization techniques areperformed, may be caused to divide the same speech data set 3100 as wasfeatured in FIGS. 17A-C and 18A-B into multiple data chunks 3110 d. Inso doing, an indication of the length of the speech audio that is to berepresented by each data chunk 3110 d may be retrieved from theconfiguration data 2335. It should be noted that, in a manner similar tothe data chunks 3110 a versus the data chunks 3110 c, the data chunks3110 d of this speaker diarization technique may not represent the samelength of the speech audio as are represented by either or both of thedata chunks 3110 a or 3110 c.

However, unlike each of the aforedescribed uses of the divisioncomponent 2311 to generate the chunks 3110 a and 3110 c, the executionof the division component 2311 in support of this speaker diarizationtechnique may cause further subdivision of each data chunk 3110 d into aset of data fragments 3111 d. In so doing, an indication of the lengthof the speech audio that is to be represented by each data fragment 3111d may also be retrieved from the configuration data 2335.

Additionally, beyond performing such a subdivision of each data chunk3110 d into a set of data fragments 3110 d, the execution of thedivision component 2311 may cause the indications of likely sentencepauses within each of the pause sets 3116 generated by each of themultiple pause detection techniques to be used to identify ones of thedata fragments 3111 d that represent portions of the speech audio thatmay not include speech sounds as a result of including at least aportion of a sentence pause. As those skilled in the art will readilyrecognize, attempting to identify a speaker in a portion of speech audiothat does not actually include speech sounds may yield unpredictableresults that may undesirably affect subsequent processing operations.Following the identification of such data fragments 3111 d, such datafragments 3111 d may be removed from within the ones of the data chunks3110 d in which they are present. As a result, each of the data chunks3110 d should be at least unlikely to include data fragments 3111 d thatrepresent a portion of the speech audio that does not include any speechsounds.

Again, in some embodiments, the pre-processing of speech audio mayinclude normalizing the digital format in which the speech audio isstored as a speech data set 3100. Thus, it may again be that, prior toor as part of dividing the speech audio into chunks, the digital formatin which the speech audio is stored may be changed to a pre-selectedformat that specifies one or more of a particular sampling frequency,data width and/or type of data value per sample, a particular type ofcompression (or no compression), etc.

As previously discussed in reference to the acoustic model neuralnetwork 2234, different implementations of neural networks used inperforming various functions in the processing of audio may acceptindications of detected audio features as input, instead of acceptingaudio data (e.g., the data chunks 3110 d) more directly as input. Thus,it may be that the feature detection component 2313 is again executed toanalyze the portion of speech audio represented by each data fragment3111 d to identify instances of each of a pre-selected set of acousticfeatures. In so doing, processor(s) 2350 may be caused to generate acorresponding set of feature vectors 3113 from each data fragment chunk3111 d that is analyzed.

In executing the configuration component 2314, processor(s) 2350 may becaused to instantiate and configure a speaker diarization neural network2237. As previously discussed, in embodiments in which at least a subsetof the node device(s) 2300 include one or more neuromorphic devices2355, the speaker diarization neural network 2237 may be instantiatedwithin one or more of the neuromorphic devices 2355 such that thespeaker diarization neural network 2237 may be implemented in hardware.Alternatively, in embodiments that lack the incorporation ofneuromorphic devices, it may be that the speaker diarization neuralnetwork 2237 is implemented in software.

With the speaker diarization neural network 2237 instantiated(regardless of whether it is implemented in hardware or software), thespeaker diarization neural network 2237 may then be provided with thedata fragments 3111 d, one at a time, as input (either directly orindirectly, such as in the form of the depicted sets of feature vectors3113 d). For each data fragment 3111 d, the speaker diarization neuralnetwork 2237 may generate a corresponding speaker vector 3117 d that isdescriptive of vocal characteristics of a speaker who is speaking in theportion of speech audio that is represented by the data fragment 3111 d.More specifically, and as previously discussed, each speaker vector 3117d may include (or may be) a one-dimensional array of various data values(e.g., binary data values and/or other numerical data values) that areeach provide an indication of a presence or absence of a vocalcharacteristic, a measure of a degree or level of a vocalcharacteristic, etc.

As those skilled in the art will readily recognize, the variation invocal characteristics across the human race has been found to besufficiently varied that the use of vocal characteristics as a form ofidentification of individual persons has been accepted for some time.Further, it has been found to be possible to train a neural network(such as the depicted speaker diarization neural network 2237) wellenough to generate speaker vectors that with relatively highlyconsistent data values for the vocal characteristics of a particularperson despite variations in the speech of that particular person thatmay arise under differing conditions, such as speech volume, speechspeed and/or pitch associated with differing emotional states, etc. Thishigh degree of consistency in the data values of speaker vectorsassociated with a particular individual more readily enables the use ofsuch techniques as clustering to identify individual speakers.

FIGS. 19B and 19C, taken together depict various aspects of the mannerin which execution of a clustering component 2318 of the control routine2310 by processor(s) 2350 may cause the identification of speakers inthe chunk of speech audio represented by a data chunk 3110 d by usingeach speaker vector 3117 d associated with a data fragment 3111 dthereof as a point in a multidimensional space 2239. More specifically,each data value of each speaker vector 3117 d may be treated asspecifying a location along a different one of multiple axes. Thus, theset of values within each speaker vector 3117 d, when taken together,may specify a point. By way of example, and as depicted in FIG. 19B,each one of the five depicted points a, b, c, d and e may be a pointwithin the depicted space 2239 that is specified by the data values of acorresponding speaker vector 3117 d.

It should be noted, however, that each of FIGS. 19B and 19C depict adeliberately highly simplified two dimensional view of a deliberatelysimplified example of a space 2239. This deliberately highly simplifiedexample is presented herein for purposes of enabling understanding ofaspects of the use of clustering to identify speakers, and should not betaken as limiting. Indeed, as those skilled in the art will readilyrecognize, effective identification of speakers requires the use ofspeaker vectors with numerous data values such that any treatment ofspeaker vectors as a point within a space would necessitate the use of aspace having numerous dimensions, which would be quite difficult toeffectively depict in a two-dimensional image.

Referring to FIGS. 19B and 19C, as well as to FIG. 19A, the clusteringcomponent 2318 may employ any of a wide variety of clusteringalgorithms. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, regardlessof the exact choice of clustering algorithm that is selected for use,broadly, such factors as distance between points 2238, quantities ofpoints 2237 within a preselected radius of a portion of the space 2239,density of points 2337 within a preselected radius of a portion of thespace 2239, etc. may be used to identify each cluster 2238 of points2237 that may be deemed to be associated a single speaker. Thus,depending on the algorithm that is selected, the clustering component2318 may employ any of a variety of rules for determining what points2237 belong together in a cluster 2238.

In some embodiments, the clustering component 2318 may employ multipleclustering algorithms at different stages of using clustering toidentify speakers. By way of example, a spectral clustering algorithmmay initially be used as new speakers continue to be identified as partof adding points associated with a single data chunk 3110 d to the space2239. This may be done as an approach to attempting to reduce the numberof dimensions of the space 2239. However, with all points associatedwith a single data chunk 3110 d added to the space 2239, a k-meansclustering algorithm may be used in view of its affinity for handlingwhat may still be a relatively large quantity of dimensions.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 19B, as depicted, it may be that, aseach point 2237 that is specified by the data values of one of thespeaker vectors 3117 of a single data chunk 3110 d is added to the space2239, the clustering component 2318 may determine whether the additionof each point 2237 defines a new cluster 2238, again, based on suchfactors as quantity and/or density of points 2237 that are caused to bewithin a portion of the space 2239 having a preselected radius and/orother characteristics. Once a new cluster 2238 is determined to bepresent within the space 2239, it may be, in some clustering algorithms,that points 2237 that are near to such a portion of the space 2239, butnot in it, may nonetheless be deemed to be part of the cluster 2238.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 19C, as depicted, it may be that theongoing addition of more points 2237 leading to the identification ofanother cluster 2238, may then lead to a need to re-evaluate whichpoints 2237 that have been plotted, so far, belong to which cluster2238. More specifically, while it may be that one or both of thedepicted points e and f might have initially been deemed to belong tothe single cluster 1 depicted in FIG. 19B, the identification of anothercluster 2 depicted in FIG. 19C may necessitate a reevaluation of whetherone or both of the points e and f should be deemed as belonging to thenewer cluster 2. Thus, in at least some clustering algorithms theidentification of each new cluster 2238 may trigger at least a partialrepeat performance of clustering.

However, and as will be familiar to those skilled in the art, eachperformance of a clustering algorithm can consume an amount ofprocessing resources that may increase exponentially with the additionof each point. To address this, it may be that each performance andrepeated performance of clustering is limited to the points 2237 thatcorrespond to the data fragments 3111 d that are present within a singledata chunk 3110 d.

Turning to FIG. 19D, following the performance of clustering (includingany repeat performances) to generate clusters that identify speakerspresent within the portion of speech audio represented by data chunk3110 d, further execution of the clustering component 2318 may causeprocessor(s) 2350 to match each speaker vector 3117 d of a data fragment3111 d of the data chunk 3110 d to one of the identified speakers. Morespecifically, a separate speaker identifier may be generated for eachcluster 2238 that is identified (each of which is deemed to beassociated with a different speaker).

Following the matching of speaker vectors 3117 d to identified speakers,the speaker identifiers of temporally adjacent speaker vectors 3117 dmay be compared to identify each instance in which there is a change ofspeakers. For each such instance of change of speakers, an indication ofa change of speakers may be added to the change set 3118.

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C and 20D, taken together, illustrate an example ofgenerating the segmentation set 3119 of indications of segments in eachof the embodiments of a distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14A-C and FIGS. 14D-F. FIG. 20A illustrates the combining of multiplepause sets 3116 of indications of likely sentence pauses with at leastone change set 3118 of indications of likely speaker changes frommultiple node devices 2300 in the embodiment of FIGS. 14A-C to generatethe segmentation set 3119, and FIG. 20B illustrates the use of thatsegmentation set 3119 in dividing the speech data set 3100 into datasegments 3140 representing segments of the speech audio of the speechdata set 3100 in that same embodiment. FIG. 20C illustrates thecombining of multiple pause sets 3116 of indications of likely sentencepauses with at least one change set 3118 of indications of likelyspeaker changes from multiple threads 2454 in the embodiment of FIGS.14D-F to generate the segmentation set 3119, and FIG. 20D illustratesthe use of that segmentation set 3119 in dividing the speech data set3100 into data segments 3140 representing segments of the speech audioof the speech data set 3100 in that same embodiment.

Turning to FIG. 20A, in executing an aggregation component 2519 of thecontrol routine 2510, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 inthe embodiment of a distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-Cmay be caused to combine multiple pause sets 3116 (which may be receivedfrom multiple node devices 2300, such as the specifically depicted pausesets 3116 a and 3116 c) into a single set of indications of likelysentence pauses. As previously discussed, a variety of differentapproaches may be used in performing such a combining of such multiplepause sets 3116, including approaches to combining in which differentpause detection techniques (and therefore, different ones of the pausesets 3116) may be assigned different relative weighting factors. Asdepicted, and as also previously discussed, such relative weight factorsmay be made dynamically adjustable based on one or more characteristicsof the speech audio represented by the speech data set 3100.

By way of example, and as previously discussed in connection with theAPA pause detection technique of FIGS. 17A-C, it may be that audio noiselevel measurement(s) are taken along with the measurements of peakamplitude that are performed as part of the APA pause detectiontechnique. In so doing, the audio noise level 3112 may be generated asan average, a peak, or other representation of the level of audio noisethroughout the speech audio of the speech data set 3100. Regardless ofthe exact manner in which the representation of the level of audio noisewithin the audio noise level 3112 is generated, the audio noise level3112 may be used as an input for dynamically adjusting the relativeweighting factors assigned to the different pause sets 3116 to take intoaccount the relative degrees of susceptibility of each pause detectiontechnique to being adversely affected by audio noise present in thespeech audio. More specifically, it may be that the CTC pause detectiontechnique is less susceptible to audio noise than the APA pausedetection technique such that the presence of a higher level of audionoise in the speech audio (as indicated by the audio noise level 3112)may cause the pause set 3116 c generated via the CTC pause detectiontechnique to be given a greater relative weight compared to the pauseset 3116 a generated via the APA pause detection technique.

Also in executing the aggregation component 2519 of the control routine2510, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may be caused tosimilarly combine multiple change sets 3118 (which may also be receivedfrom multiple node devices 2300) in embodiments in which multipledifferent speaker diarization techniques have been similarly performed,at least partially in parallel, to similarly generate a single combinedset of indications of likely speaker changes. In so doing, there mayalso be the use of some form of relative weighting that may also bebased on the audio noise level 3112, and/or based on any of a variety ofother factors. Alternatively, and as depicted, it may be that just asingle speaker diarization technique was performed, resulting thegeneration of just a single change set 3118 (such as the specificallydepicted change set 3118 d).

In further executing the aggregation component 2519 of the controlroutine 2510, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may be causedto then use the single set of indications of likely sentence pausesalong with the single set of indications of likely speaker changes toderive a manner in which the speech audio of the speech data set 3100 isto be divided into segments of speech audio. In so doing, a set ofindications of the manner in which to effect such segmentation may bestored as the segmentation set 3119.

Turning to FIG. 20B, in executing a division component 2541 of thecontrol routine 2540, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 maybe caused to divide the speech data set 3100 into data segments 3140based on the segmentation set 3119. In so doing, the speech audiorepresented by the speech data set 3100 may be divided into segmentswhere the divisions between each adjacent pair of segments is caused tooccur at a location at which each likely sentence pause and/or likelyspeaker change was determined to have occurred. As a result, each of thesegments of speech audio should be at least more likely to start and endwith portions of sentence pauses, and should be at least more likely toinclude words spoken by the same speaker(s) throughout. This shouldserve to increase the likelihood that the entirety of the pronunciationof each letter, of each word, and/or of each sentence is fully containedwithin a single one of the segments, instead of being split across thedivide between two segments, and to increase the likelihood that themanner in which such speech sounds are pronounced throughout eachsegment should not change. In this way, the accuracy of subsequentprocessing operations to detect acoustic features, to identify letters,and then to identify whole words, may be improved.

Turning to FIG. 20C, in executing an aggregation component 2319 of thecontrol routine 2310, processor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300 in theembodiment of a distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14D-F may becaused to combine multiple pause sets 3116 (which may be received frommultiple threads 2454 within the same node device 2300, such as thespecifically depicted pause sets 3116 a and 3116 c) into a single set ofindications of likely sentence pauses. Again, a variety of differentapproaches may be used in performing such a combining of such multiplepause sets 3116, including approaches to combining in which differentpause detection techniques (and therefore, different ones of the pausesets 3116) may be assigned different relative weighting factors. Again,such relative weight factors may be made dynamically adjustable based onone or more characteristics of the speech audio represented by thespeech data set 3100.

Again, as previously discussed in connection with the APA pausedetection technique of FIGS. 17A-C, it may be that audio noise levelmeasurement(s) are taken along with the measurements of peak amplitudethat are performed as part of the APA pause detection technique. In sodoing, the audio noise level 3112 may be generated as an average, apeak, or other representation of the level of audio noise throughout thespeech audio of the speech data set 3100. Regardless of the exact mannerin which the representation of the level of audio noise within the audionoise level 3112 is generated, the audio noise level 3112 may be used asan input for dynamically adjusting the relative weighting factorsassigned to the different pause sets 3116 to take into account therelative degrees of susceptibility of each pause detection technique tobeing adversely affected by audio noise present in the speech audio.Again, it may be that the CTC pause detection technique is lesssusceptible to audio noise than the APA pause detection technique suchthat the presence of a higher level of audio noise in the speech audio(as indicated by the audio noise level 3112) may cause the pause set3116 c generated via the CTC pause detection technique to be given agreater relative weight compared to the pause set 3116 a generated viathe APA pause detection technique.

Also in executing the aggregation component 2319 of the control routine2310, processor(s) 2350 of the node device 2300 may be caused tosimilarly combine multiple change sets 3118 (which may also be receivedfrom multiple threads 2454 within the same node device 2300) inembodiments in which multiple different speaker diarization techniqueshave been similarly performed, at least partially in parallel, tosimilarly generate a single combined set of indications of likelyspeaker changes. Again, there may also be the use of some form ofrelative weighting that may also be based on the audio noise level 3112,and/or based on any of a variety of other factors. Alternatively, and asdepicted, it may be that just a single speaker diarization technique wasperformed, resulting the generation of just a single change set 3118(such as the specifically depicted change set 3118 d).

In further executing the aggregation component 2319 of the controlroutine 2310, processor(s) 2350 of the node device 2300 may be caused tothen use the single set of indications of likely sentence pauses alongwith the single set of indications of likely speaker changes to derive amanner in which the speech audio of the speech data set 3100 is to bedivided into segments of speech audio. In so doing, a set of indicationsof the manner in which to effect such segmentation may be stored as thesegmentation set 3119.

Turning to FIG. 20D, in executing a division component 2341 of thecontrol routine 2340, processor(s) 2350 of the node device 2300 may becaused to divide the speech data set 3100 into data segments 3140 basedon the segmentation set 3119. Again, in so doing, the speech audiorepresented by the speech data set 3100 may be divided into segmentswhere the divisions between each adjacent pair of segments is caused tooccur at a location at which each likely sentence pause and/or likelyspeaker change was determined to have occurred. Again, as a result, eachof the segments of speech audio should be at least more likely to startand end with portions of sentence pauses, and should be at least morelikely to include words spoken by the same speaker(s) throughout. Again,this should serve to increase the likelihood that the entirety of thepronunciation of each letter, of each word, and/or of each sentence isfully contained within a single one of the segments, instead of beingsplit across the divide between two segments, and to increase thelikelihood that the manner in which such speech sounds are pronouncedthroughout each segment should not change. In this way, the accuracy ofsubsequent processing operations to detect acoustic features, toidentify letters, and then to identify whole words, may be improved.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D, 21E, 21F, 21G, 21H and 21I, taken together,illustrate an example of using the data segments 3140 into which aspeech data set 3100 is divided to perform speech-to-text processingoperations in the embodiment of FIGS. 14A-C. FIG. 21A illustrates theuse of feature detection and an acoustic model to generate sets ofprobability distributions that are indicative of relative probabilitiesof the use of various graphemes, and FIG. 21B illustrates the collectionof those probability distribution sets 3143 for use by the controldevice 2500. FIGS. 21C-D, taken together, illustrate the use of theprobability distribution sets 3143 to generate sets of candidate words3145, and then to generate sets 3146 of candidate n-grams for use by alanguage model. FIG. 21E provides an overview illustration of using setsof candidate words 3145 and candidate n-gram sets 3146 as input togenerate a text data set 3700 representing transcript(s) of the wordsspoken in speech data set 3100. FIG. 21F illustrates the distribution ofa large corpus 3400 representing a language model, along with individualnode identifiers 2311, to each one of multiple selected node devices2300 in preparation for using the language model in a distributedmanner. FIGS. 21G-H illustrate aspects of the performance of adistributed beam search within the corpus data set 3400 among themultiple selected node devices 2300 to derive probability sets 3147indicative of relative probabilities of use of n-grams within thecandidate n-gram sets 3146. FIG. 21I illustrates aspects of thecollection and use of probability sets 3147 to determine another word toadd to a transcript stored as a text data set 3700.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, the use of an n-gramlanguage model has become commonplace in speech-to-text processing. Suchuse of an n-gram language model is often based on an assumption that thenext word in a transcript of speech audio is able to be identified witha relatively high degree of accuracy based on what word or wordsimmediately preceded it. It has also been found that the accuracy of theidentification of the next word is able to be increased by increasingthe quantity of immediately preceding words that are used as the basisfor that identification. Unfortunately, as will also be familiar tothose skilled in the art, each increase in the quantity of immediatelypreceding words by a single word can result in an exponential increasein the size of the corpus of n-grams that must be used. As a result,although there have been experimental implementations of speech-to-textprocessing that have used an n-gram language model supporting up to asmany as 10 immediately preceding words, the amount of time, storage andprocessing resources required often make such an implementationimpractical. Therefore, it is more commonplace to employ a quantity 3, 4or 5 immediately preceding words.

As will shortly be explained, in the embodiment of the distributedprocessing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C, the processing, storage and/orother resources of multiple computing devices may be employed in acooperative manner to make the use of a higher quantity of immediatelypreceding words in an n-gram language model in speech-to-text processingsignificantly more practical.

Turning to FIG. 21A, in executing a division component 2341 of thecontrol routine 2340, processor(s) 2350 of at least one node device 2300may be caused to divide a data segment 3140 into multiple data frames3141. In embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14A-C, it may be that multiple data segments 3140 of a speech data set3100 are distributed among multiple node devices 2300 to enable suchprocessing of data segments 3140 to be performed at least partially inparallel. In so executing the division component 2341, an indication ofthe length of the speech audio that is to be represented by each dataframe 3141 may be caused to be retrieved from the configuration data2335 and used to control the division of each data segment 3140 intomultiple data frames 3141.

Again, at least some acoustic models implemented using neural networks(and/or other technologies) may be designed to accept indications ofdetected audio features as input, instead of accepting audio data (e.g.,the data frames 3141) more directly as input. To accommodate the use ofsuch implementations of an acoustic model, execution of the controlroutine 2340 may entail execution of a feature detection component 2342to analyze the portion of speech audio represented by each data frame3141 to identify instances of each of a pre-selected set of acousticfeatures. In so doing, processor(s) 2350 may be caused to generate acorresponding feature vector 3142 from each data frame 3141 that isanalyzed. Each feature vector 3141 may include indications of eachacoustic feature that is identified and when it occurred within thespeech audio of the corresponding data frame 3141.

Comparing FIG. 21A to FIG. 18A, it may be that both feature detectionand use of an acoustic model may be repeated. Indeed, in comparing FIG.21A to FIG. 18A, it becomes evident that the very same acoustic modelbased on a neural network (e.g., the acoustic model neural network 2234incorporating the CTC output 2235) may be used, again, in someembodiments. However, it should be noted that other embodiments arepossible in which different acoustic models based on differing types ofneural network may be used, and/or in which different acoustic modelsbased on entirely different technologies may be used. In embodiments inwhich neural network(s) are used, execution of a configuration component2344 may cause processor(s) 2350 to again instantiate the same acousticmodel neural network 2234 with the CTC output 2235 to implement the sameacoustic model. As depicted, in some of such embodiments, it may be thatone or more neuromorphic devices 2355 may be used to again implement theacoustic model neural network 2234 in hardware within each of one ormore node devices 2300.

Regardless of whether the acoustic models of FIGS. 18A and 21A areidentical, there are significant differences in the manner in which theyare used in FIGS. 18A and 21A. Unlike the use of an acoustic model inFIG. 18A to perform part of the aforedescribed CTC-based segmentationtechnique, the acoustic model in FIG. 21A is used to used to performpart of speech-to-text processing operations. More specifically, theacoustic model is now used to generate, from a speech segmentrepresented by a data segment 3140, a probability distribution set 3143.Each of the probability distributions within the set 3143 specifies, fora particular time within the segment, the relative probabilities foreach of a pre-selected set of graphemes.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, over time, a number ofdifferent systems of notation have been devised for describing speechsounds for one or more languages using graphemes. In many of suchnotation systems, the graphemes may be text characters and/or similarvisual symbols (e.g., text characters modified to include various accentmarkings). In different ones of such notation systems, at least some ofthe graphemes may each correspond to one or more phonemes, and/or atleast some of the graphemes must be used in various combinations thateach correspond to one or more phonemes. Thus, in specifying relativeprobabilities of a pre-selected set of graphemes, each probabilitydistribution may specify the relative probabilities that each of apre-selected set of speech sounds was uttered at a particular timewithin a speech segment.

Turning to FIG. 21B, the probability distribution sets 3143 associatedwith a single speech data set 3100 may be collected from the multiplenode devices 2300 in which they were generated, and may be provided tothe control device 2500 through the network 2999. Such provision ofthose multiple probability distribution sets 3143 to the control device2500 may occur as they are generated, at least partially in parallel,within the multiple node devices 2300. Within the control device 2500,execution of the control routine 2540 may cause processors 2550 of thecontrol device 2500 to organize the probability distribution sets 3143into temporal order in preparation for being used to identify words forinclusion in a transcript of the contents of the speech audio.

Regardless of whether such a collection and provision of probabilitydistribution sets 3143 via the network 2999 takes place, as alsodepicted, each of the node devices 2300 of the processing system 2000(whether engaged in generating probability distribution sets 3143, ornot) may also provide the control device 2500 with indications of theavailability of their processing, storage and/or other resources. Suchindications may be used to augment and/or update resources data 2539.

Turning to FIG. 21C, in executing a candidate word component 2545 of thecontrol routine 2540, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 maybe caused to generate sets of one or more candidate words 3145 from eachprobability distribution set 3143. Then, in executing a candidate n-gramcomponent 2546 of the control routine 2540, processor(s) 2550 of thecontrol device 2500 may be caused to generate corresponding one or morecandidate n-gram sets 3146 from the one or more candidate words 3145that are generated for each probability distribution set 3143.

More specifically, as previously discussed, and turning to FIG. 21D,each speech segment (each of which is represented in storage by acorresponding data segment 3140) may be formed by dividing the speechaudio of a speech data set 3100 at midpoints amidst what are determinedto be likely sentence pauses and/or likely changes in speakers. As aresult, each speech segment may begin with a portion of a sentence pauseand/or where there is a change in speakers, and each speech segment mayend with a portion of a sentence pause and/or where there is a change inspeakers. Each speech segment may then be further divided into frames(each of which is represented in storage by a corresponding data frame3141), which are kept in temporal order. Thus, as depicted in FIG. 21D,the speech segment (again, represented by a data segment 3140) thatcorresponds to the depicted probability distribution set 3143 may beginwith a first few consecutive speech frames (each of which is representedby a corresponding data frame 3141) in which there may not be any speechsounds, as would be expected within a likely sentence pause. As aresult, each of the corresponding first few consecutive probabilitydistributions 3144 (including the earliest thereof) may indicate that agrapheme (e.g., a text character and/or a blank symbol) for an emptyspace has the highest probability of having occurred within thecorresponding speech frame.

Following such consecutive probability distributions 3144 associatedwith the likely sentence pause at the start of the speech segment, theremay then be the first of multiple consecutive probability distributions3144 that may be associated with the pronunciation of the letters of thefirst word of a sentence (the transition from probability distributions3144 associated with a likely sentence pause to probabilitydistributions 3144 that may be associated with pronouncing the firstword is marked by vertical dashed line). In executing the candidate wordcomponent 2545, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may, basedon those multiple consecutive probability distributions 3144, derive apre-selected quantity of candidate words 3145 that are each among themost likely to be the first word that was spoken throughout thecorresponding multiple consecutive speech frames. The processor(s) 2550may then be caused by execution of the candidate n-gram component 2546to convert the set of candidate words 3145 into a candidate n-gram set3146 a by adding up to a pre-selected quantity of words that werepreviously identified as the immediately preceding words in what may bea sentence that corresponds to the probability distribution set 3143.However, since each of the candidate words 3145 is preceded by what isdeemed to be a likely sentence pause, there may be no such precedingwords to be added such that the resulting candidate n-gram set 3146 acontains a set of uni-grams that are each just one of the candidatewords 3145.

FIG. 21D also depicts another example set of candidate words 3145 beingderived from multiple consecutive probability distributions 3144 at atemporally later location within the same probability distribution set3143 that may be associated with pronouncing another word at a latertime within the same speech segment. Again, in executing the candidateword component 2545, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may,based on those multiple consecutive probability distributions 3144,derive another pre-selected quantity of candidate words 3145 that areeach among the most likely to be the word that was spoken throughoutthese other corresponding multiple consecutive speech frames. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then be caused by execution of the candidaten-gram component 2546 to convert this other set of candidate words 3145into another candidate n-gram set 3146 b by adding up to the preselectedquantity of words that were previously identified as the immediatelypreceding words in what may be a sentence that corresponds to theprobability distribution set 3143. Unlike the previously discussed setof candidate words 3145, there may be multiple immediately precedingwords that were spoken up to the point at which one of the candidatewords 3145 within this other set of candidate words 3145. Therefore, theother candidate n-gram set 3146 b may include up to the pre-selectedquantity of words.

Turning to FIG. 21E, regardless of whether the n-grams within acandidate n-gram set 3146 generated within the control device 2500include any immediately preceding words ahead of the candidate words3145 thereof, in executing a beam search component 2347 of the controlroutine 2340, processor(s) 2350 may be caused to perform a beam searchwithin the corpus data set 3400 for one or more of the n-grams presentwithin the candidate n-gram set 3146. As will be familiar to thoseskilled in the art of n-gram language models, each n-gram within ann-gram corpus may be accompanied therein with an indication of therelative frequency of its occurrence and/or its relative probability ofoccurrence within texts of a particular language (based on the sampletexts of the particular language used in generating the n-gram corpus).As each n-gram is found within the corpus data set 3400, an indicationof the relative probability of that n-gram occurring may be storedwithin a probability set 3147 generated for all of the candidate n-gramsin the candidate n-gram set 3146.

Following generation of each probability set 3147, execution of atranscript component 2548 of the control routine 2540 may causeprocessor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 to, based on theindications of the relative probabilities in the probability set 3147for each n-gram within the candidate n-gram set 3146, identify acandidate word 3145 among the corresponding set of candidate words 3145as the word that was most likely the next word to be spoken. Theidentified most likely spoken word may then be added to the transcriptof the speech audio represented as a text data set 3700.

Turning to FIG. 21F, it may be that execution of a coordinationcomponent 2549 causes processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 touse indications of node devices 2300 with sufficient availableprocessing and/or storage resources as a basis for selecting particularones of node devices 2300 that are to be employed in performing beamsearches of a corpus data set 3400 in a distributed manner. With suchselections made, unique node identifiers 2331 may be transmitted to eachof the selected node devices 2300 via the network 2999. The nodeidentifiers 2331 may be a continuous series of positive integers ofincreasing value, starting with 0, and incremented by 1. Theprocessor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may also be caused tocooperate with processors 2350 of the node devices 2300 to coordinatecommunications through the network 2999 to cause the provision ofcomplete copies of the corpus data set 3400 for a pre-selected languagefrom the one or more storage devices 2100 to each of the selected nodedevices 2300.

Turning to FIG. 21G, in further executing the coordination component2549, the processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may be caused toprovide complete copies of each of the candidate n-gram sets 3146, intemporal order, to all of the selected node devices 2300. Within each ofthe selected node devices 2300, execution of the beam search component2347 of the control routine 2340 may cause the processor(s) 2350 thereofto perform a beam search within the corpus data set 3400 for one or moreof the n-grams present within the candidate n-gram set 3146. As will befamiliar to those skilled in the art of n-gram language models, eachn-gram within an n-gram corpus may be accompanied therein with anindication of the relative frequency of its occurrence and/or itsrelative probability of occurrence within texts of a particular language(based on the sample texts of the particular language used in generatingthe n-gram corpus).

Referring to FIG. 21H, in addition to FIG. 21G, it should be noted thateach of the selected node devices 2300 is caused to perform a beamsearch for different one(s) of the n-grams within the candidate n-gramset 3146, such that no two of the selected node devices 2300 are causedto perform a beam search for the same n-gram. In some embodiments, thismay be effected through the use of modulo calculations in which, withineach of the selected node devices 2300, the numerical designation of theposition occupied by each n-gram within the candidate n-gram set 3146 isdivided by the quantity of the selected node devices 2300 to derive amodulo value for each n-gram within the candidate n-gram set 3146. Themodulo value calculated for each n-gram is then compared to the uniquenode identifier 2331 that was earlier assigned to the selected nodedevice 2300. The n-gram(s) that are searched for within each of theselected node devices 2300 are the one(s) for which the modulo valuematches the unique node identifier 2331 for that node device 2300.

Thus, as depicted (in the deliberately simplified example in FIG. 21H inwhich there are only three selected node devices 2300), within theselected node device 2300 that has been assigned the “0” node identifier2331, the n-grams at the “0th″and “3rd” positions within the candidaten-gram set 3146 are searched for within the corpus data set 3400 storedtherein. Correspondingly, within the selected node device 2300 that hasbeen assigned the “1” node identifier 2331, the n-grams at the “1st” and“4th” positions within the candidate n-gram set 3146 are searched forwithin the corpus data set 3400 stored therein. Also correspondingly,within the selected node device 2300 that has been assigned the “2” nodeidentifier 2331, the n-gram at the “2nd” position within the candidaten-gram set 3146 is searched for within the corpus data set 3400 storedtherein. In this way, a relatively even distribution of n-grams to besearched for within the corpus data set 3400 across the multipleselected node devices 2300 is achieved with relatively minimalcommunication across the network 2999.

Also, by providing each of the selected node devices 2300 with acomplete copy of the entire corpus data set 3400, all processingoperations for the beam search for each n-gram are performed entirelywithin a single node device 2300 without need for communications withany other device through the network 2999. This entirely eliminates theneed for network communications among the selected node devices 2300 tocarry out any of the beam searches, thereby reducing consumption ofnetwork bandwidth and eliminating the expenditure of time that wouldoccur while such communications take place.

Further, such distribution of beam searches among multiple computingdevices enables the corpus data set 3400 to be of considerably largersize versus the maximum size that would be practical and/or possiblewere just a single computing device used. As will be familiar to thoseskilled in the art, the ability to more efficiently perform a greaterquantity of beam searches in less time, thereby enabling the use of alarger corpus, may advantageously permit a corpus to include more lowerfrequency n-grams (i.e., n-grams that have a relatively low probabilityof occurring within texts of a particular language) and/or to includen-grams with a greater quantity of words per n-gram.

Focusing again more specifically on FIG. 21G, within each of theselected node devices 2300, as each n-gram is found within the corpusdata set 3400, an indication of the relative probability of that n-gramoccurring may be stored within a probability set 3147 generated for allof the n-grams for which a beam search is performed within that selectednode device 2300. In some embodiments, where a particular n-gram is notfound within the corpus data set 3400, an indication of default valuefor the relative probability of the occurrence of an “unknown” n-grammay be stored within the probability set 3147.

Turning to FIG. 21I, each of the probability sets 3147 may be providedto the control device 2500 through the network 2999 as they aregenerated, at least partially in parallel, within multiple node devices2300. Within the control device 2500, execution of a transcriptcomponent 2548 may cause processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500to, based on the indications of the relative probabilities retrieved foreach n-gram within the candidate n-gram set 3146, identify the word thatwas most likely spoken. The identified most likely spoken word may thenbe added to the transcript of the speech audio. Upon completion of thegeneration of the transcript, the control device 2500 may provide it tothe one or more storage devices 2100 to be persistently stored thereinas a text data set 3700.

FIGS. 22A, 22B, 22C, 22D, 22E and 22F, taken together, illustrate anexample of using the data segments 3140 into which a speech data set3100 is divided to perform speech-to-text processing operations in theembodiment of FIGS. 14D-F. FIGS. 22A-B, taken together, illustrateaspects of the manner in which an example of single-threadedpreprocessing and initial speech-to-text processing operations may becombined with multithreaded subsequent speech-to-text processingoperations to efficiently utilize processing, storage and otherresources within each node device 2300 to perform speech-to-textconversion on multiple speech data sets 3100 in parallel. FIG. 22Cillustrates the use of feature detection and an acoustic model within asingle thread 2454 s to generate sets of probability distributions aspart of the initial single-threaded speech-to-text processingoperations. FIG. 22D illustrates the use of a buffer queue 2460 todistribute the probability distribution sets generated in FIG. 22C amongmultiple threads 2454 p of a thread pool 2450 for the performances ofbeam searching as part of the subsequent multi-threaded speech-to-textprocessing operations. FIG. 22E illustrates the multi-threaded use ofuse of the probability distribution sets 3143 to generate sets ofcandidate words 3145, and then to generate sets 3146 of candidaten-grams for use by a language model across the multiple threads 2454 pof the thread pool 2450. FIG. 22F provides an overview illustration ofthe multi-threaded use of sets of candidate n-gram sets 3146 as inputsto parallel performances of beam searches, and sets of candidate words3145 as additional inputs to generating a text data set 3700representing a transcript of the words spoken in the correspondingspeech data set 3100.

Again, the use of an n-gram language model has become commonplace inspeech-to-text processing due to having been found to increase theaccuracy of the identification of spoken words. However, again, the useof an n-gram language model has also been found to consume considerableresources, with such consumption of resources increasing exponentiallyas the size of the n-grams increases by even one more word. As willshortly be explained, in the embodiment of the distributed processingsystem 2000 of FIGS. 14D-F, the processing, storage and/or otherresources of multiple threads within a single computing device may beemployed to better enable the practical use of n-grams having largerquantities of words.

Again, the operation in speech-to-text conversion at which so much ofprocessing, storage and/or other resources are consumed has been foundto the beam searches that are performed on an n-gram corpus thatimplements a language model. And again, arranging for beam searches tobe performed at least partially in parallel has been found to be anefficient approach to addressing the bottleneck that often results.

Turning to FIGS. 22A-B, in contrast to the approach described just aboveof distributing parallel performances of beam searches associated with asingle speech data set 3100 across multiple node devices 2300 in thedistributed processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C, what will now bedescribed in greater detail is an approach of distributing parallelperformances of beam searches associated with a speech data set 3100across multiple threads 2454 p of a thread pool 2450 within a singlenode device 2300 in the distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14D-F.

More specifically, for a single speech data set 3100, the pre-processingoperations of the control routine 2310, and a subset of thespeech-to-text operations of the control routine 2340 that precedeoperations associated with using a language model (as implemented withthe corpus data set 3400) may be performed entirely within a singlethread 2454 s within a single node device 2300. Some degree of parallelperformance of the pause detection preprocessing operations within thesingle thread 2454 s may be implemented through use of the neuromorphicdevice(s) 2355 (in embodiments in which the node device 2300 include theneuromorphic device(s) 2355) to obviate the need to implement anacoustic model based on a neural network in software for CTC-based pausedetection. However, the use of a thread pool 2450 of multiple threads2454 p may be reserved for speech-to-text processing operations that areassociated with using a language model.

In this way, most, if not all, pre-processing operations andspeech-to-text processing operations for a single speech data set 3100may be performed entirely within a single node device 2300, therebyeliminating much of the use of network communications associated withthe distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C. Thus, for eachspeech data set 3100, the need for communications among multiple devicesthrough the network 2999 is obviated as a mechanism to achieve parallelperformances of beam searches of the corpus data set 3400 as part ofgenerating a text data set 3700 representing what was said in a speechrepresented by a speech data set 3100. Instead, as shortly will beexplained in greater detail, a buffer queue 2460 is used to distributeindividual probability distribution sets 3143 generated in the singlethread 2454 s of the preceding pre-processing and processing operationsamong the multiple threads 2454 p of a thread pool 2450 instantiatedwithin the same single node device 2300. As each thread 2454 p of athread pool 2450 is used in generating a portion of a text data set 3700from the probability distribution set 3143 provided to it as input,those portions of the text data set 3700 are assembled in temporal orderto generate the text data set 3700 within the same single node device2300. Also in this way, depending on the overall quantity of threads2454 that are able to be supported within each node device 2300 of thedistributed processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14D-F, it may be possiblefor at least a subset of the node devices 2300 to each support theperformance of preprocessing and speech-to-text processing operations bywhich multiple text data sets 3700 may be generated from multiplecorresponding speech data sets 3100 in parallel.

More specifically, and referring more specifically to FIG. 22B, it maybe that at least the depicted node device 2300 xy is able to support theuse of a sufficient quantity of threads 2454 as to enable two threadpools 2450 x and 2450 y to be instantiated that each include asufficient quantity of threads 2454 p as to enable a sufficient quantityof parallel performances of beam searches of the corpus data set 3400 asto enable the parallel generation of both of the depicted text data sets3700 x and 3700 y from the depicted speech data sets 3100 x and 3100 y,respectively. As also depicted, another node device 2300 z may be ableto support the use of a sufficient quantity of threads 2454 as to enableat least one other thread pool 2450 z to be instantiated to similarlyenable the generation of at least one other text data set 3700 z from acorresponding at least one other speech data set 3100 z.

FIG. 22C depicts some of the speech-to-text processing operations thatare performed in a single thread 2454 s that precedes the parallel useof a language model in a thread pool 2450 of multiple threads 2454 p. Inthis single-threaded execution environment, each data segment 3140 of aspeech data set 3100 is used as an input to generating a correspondingprobability distribution set 3143. More specifically, in executing thedivision component 2341 of the control routine 2340, processor(s) 2350of a single one of the node devices 2300 may be caused to divide eachdata segment 3140 of multiple data segments of a speech data set 3100into multiple data frames 3141. In so executing the division component2341, an indication of the length of the speech audio that is to berepresented by each data frame 3141 may be caused to be retrieved fromthe configuration data 2335 and used to control the division of eachdata segment 3140 into multiple data frames 3141.

Again, at least some acoustic models implemented using neural networks(and/or other technologies) may be designed to accept indications ofdetected audio features as input, instead of accepting audio data (e.g.,the data frames 3141) more directly as input. To accommodate the use ofsuch implementations of an acoustic model, execution of the controlroutine 2340 may entail execution of a feature detection component 2342to analyze the portion of speech audio represented by each data frame3141 to identify instances of each of a pre-selected set of acousticfeatures. In so doing, processor(s) 2350 may be caused to generate acorresponding feature vector 3142 from each data frame 3141 that isanalyzed. Each feature vector 3141 may include indications of eachacoustic feature that is identified and when it occurred within thespeech audio of the corresponding data frame 3141.

Comparing FIG. 22C to FIG. 18A, it becomes evident that the very sameacoustic model based on a neural network (e.g., the acoustic modelneural network 2234 incorporating the CTC output 2235) may be used inboth the CTC-based pause detection, and generating probabilitydistribution sets 3143 as part of using acoustic features in beginningthe identification of words spoken. However, it should again be notedthat other embodiments are possible in which different acoustic modelsbased on differing types of neural network may be used, and/or in whichdifferent acoustic models based on entirely different technologies maybe used. In embodiments in which neural network(s) are used, executionof a configuration component 2344 may cause processor(s) 2350 to againinstantiate the same acoustic model neural network 2234 with the CTCoutput 2235 to implement the same acoustic model. As depicted, in someof such embodiments, it may be that one or more neuromorphic devices2355 may be used to again implement the acoustic model neural network2234 in hardware within each of one or more node devices 2300.

FIG. 22D depicts aspects of the manner in which a buffer queue 2460 isemployed in distributing, among the multiple threads 2454 p of thedepicted thread pool 2450, the probability distribution sets 3143 thathave been generated within a single thread 2454 s, as just described inreference to FIG. 22C. The buffer queue 2460 may be operated as a FIFObuffer. Thus, as probability distribution sets 3143 are being generatedas an output of the acoustic model neural network 2234 within the singlethread 2454 s, each one of those probability distribution sets 3143 maybe stored within one of the data buffers 2466 to become available to thethreads 2454 p of the thread pool 2450. As the speech-to-text processingoperations using one of the probability distribution sets 3143 arecompleted within each thread 2454 p so as to allow that thread 2454 p tobecome available for beginning such processing with another probabilitydistribution set 3143, that thread 2454 p may be provided with the nextprobability distribution set 3143 in the order in which the probabilitydistribution sets 3143 were stored within the buffer queue 2460.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the generation ofprobability distribution sets 3143 from data segments 314 may be done inbatches as part of an approach to make better use of opportunities forparallel performances of various operations enabled by the thread pool.Thus, a batch of data segments 3140 may be divided into data frames 3141from which corresponding feature vectors 3142 may be generated, whichmay be provided as input to the acoustic model neural network 2234 togenerate a corresponding batch of probability distribution sets 3143. Insuch embodiments, it may then be that a batch of multiple ones of theprobability distribution sets 3143 corresponding to a batch of multipleones of the data segments 3140 may be stored together within a singledata buffer 2466 of the buffer queue 2460, thereby resulting in thebatch of probability distribution sets 3143 corresponding to a batch ofdata segments 3140 being provided as an input to a single one of thethreads 2454 p of the thread pool 2450, instead of a single probabilitydistribution set 3143 corresponding to a single data segment 3140.Alternatively, in spite of the generation of batches of probabilitydistribution sets 3143 from corresponding batches of data segments 3140,it may be that just a single probability distribution set 3143corresponding to just a single data segment 3140 may be stored withineach of the data buffers 2466.

As previously discussed, in executing the resource routine 2440,processor(s) 2350 of the single node device 2300 may instantiate thebuffer queue 2460 in addition to instantiating the single thread 2454 sin which the probability distribution sets 3143 are generated, and thethread pool 2450 of multiple threads 2454 p in which the probabilitydistribution sets 3143 are used. Although not specifically depicted, insome embodiments, it may be that the resource routine 2440 is executedwithin the single thread 2454 s such that the use of processing and/orstorage resources for instantiation, maintenance and/or control of atleast the buffer queue 2460 occurs within the single thread 2454 s.Alternatively, it may be that the resource routine 2440 is executedwithin an entirely separate thread 2454 (not specifically shown) suchthat the use of processing and/or storage resources for instantiation,maintenance and/or control of the buffer queue 2460 and/or of thethreads 2454 s and/or 2454 p occurs within that separate thread 2454.

In some embodiments, the quantity of threads 2454 p allocated to thethread pool 2450 and/or the quantity of data buffers 2466 that areallocated to the buffer queue 2460 may be predetermined and fixedquantities. Indeed, it may be that such quantities are specified in theconfiguration data 2335, and may be retrieved therefrom as part ofinstantiated a thread pool 2450 and/or a buffer queue 2460. In otherembodiments, one or both of these quantities may be dynamicallyadjustable based on various factors that may be monitored over time,including and not limited to, a rate at which a text data set 3700 isbeing generated from a speech data set 3100 (e.g., is this rate keepingup with speech of a speech data set 3100 that is currently being spokenin real time), a quantity of available processing resources (e.g., amaximum quantity of threads that processor(s) 2350 of a node device 2300are currently able to support) and/or of available storage resources(e.g., an amount of available storage space that is able to be providedto sufficiently support the various operations being performed withinthe threads 2454 s and 2454 p for each speech data set 3100), etc. Morespecifically, where the processing and/or storage resources of a nodedevice 2300 are not being fully utilized, it may be that additionalthreads 2454 p may be added to existing thread pool(s) 2450 and/or itmay be that additional data buffers 2466 may be added to existing bufferqueue(s) 2460. Still further, the quantity of threads 2454 p in a threadpool 2450 and/or the quantity of data buffers 2466 in a buffer queue2460 may be adjusted based on such characteristics of a particularspeech data set 3100 as a current audio noise level 3112 (that may bedetermined as discussed in reference to FIG. 17A), based on whatlanguage(s) are spoken in the speech represented by a particular speechdata set 3100, and/or the current quantity of speakers that aredetermined to have spoken within the speech represented by a particularspeech data set 3100.

As previously discussed, each data segment 3140 may include anindication of a range of time associated with the speech segment that itrepresents within the speech that is represented by a speech data set3100. As a probability distribution set 3143 is generated from each datasegment 3140, a time stamp may be assigned to each probabilitydistribution of the relative probabilities of various graphemes and/orphonemes that may have occurred at the time indicated by that timestamp. Thus, each probability distribution set 3143 may include (or beotherwise associated with) a range of time that it covers out of thelarger range of time during which the speech represented by the speechdata set 3100 was spoken. Such indications of time within (or otherwiseassociated with) each probability distribution set 3143 may be used incausing the probability distribution sets 3143 to be loaded into thedata buffers 2466 of the buffer queue 2460 in temporal order. In thisway, advantage may be taken of the FIFO manner of operation of thebuffer queue 2460 to ensure that the probability distribution sets 3143are then distributed among the threads 2454 p of the thread pool 2450 inthe same temporal order.

In this way, there is at least an increased likelihood that, across thethreads 2454 p of the thread pool 2450, the portions of the text data3700 that are generated as outputs of the speech-to-text operationsperformed within each of those threads 2454 p will at least have atendency to be output in temporal order. However, with separateinstances of speech-to-text processing operations being performedentirely independently of each other, and in parallel, it is entirelypossible that there may be portions of the text data set 3700 that aregenerated out of temporal order. To address this, each of the portionsof the text data 3700 that are so generated may include (or be otherwiseassociated with) time stamps providing indications of the range of timecovered by each of those portions, and such time stamps may then be usedto ensure that those portions of the text data set 3700 are assembled intemporal order to correctly form the transcript within the text data set3700.

FIG. 22E depicts some of the speech-to-text processing operationsassociated with using a language mode, and that are performed asmultiple instances thereof across the multiple threads 2454 p of thethread pool 2450. Within each of the threads 2454 p of thismulti-threaded execution environment, each data segment 3140 of a speechdata set 3100 is used as an input to generating a correspondingprobability distribution set 3143. More specifically, within each of thethreads 2454 p, in executing a candidate word component 2345 of thecontrol routine 2340, processor(s) 2350 of the node device 2300 may becaused to generate sets of one or more candidate words 3145 from aprobability distribution set 3143. Then, in executing a candidate n-gramcomponent 2346 of the control routine 2340, processor(s) 2350 of thenode device 2300 may be caused to generate corresponding one or morecandidate n-gram sets 3146 from the one or more candidate words 3145that are generated for the probability distribution set 3143.

Turning to FIG. 22F, in preparation for the parallel performances ofbeam searches, each of the threads 2454 p may be provided with a copy ofthe corpus data set 3400, as depicted in FIG. 22A. Alternatively, eachof the node devices 2300 may be provide with a copy of the corpus dataset 3400 to which access may be shared among the multiple threads 2454 pof a single thread pool 2450, or to which access may be shared among themultiple threads 2454 p of more than one thread pool 2450. Again, thecorpus data set 3400 may implement a language model as a corpus ofn-grams. Within each thread 2454 p, in executing a beam search component2347 of the control routine 2340, processor(s) 2350 of the node device2300 may be caused to perform a beam search within the corpus data set3400 for one or more of the n-grams present within the candidate n-gramset 3146. Again, as will be familiar to those skilled in the art ofn-gram language models, each n-gram within an n-gram corpus may beaccompanied therein with an indication of the relative frequency of itsoccurrence and/or its relative probability of occurrence within texts ofa particular language. As each n-gram is found within the corpus dataset 3400, an indication of the relative probability of that n-gramoccurring may be stored within a probability set 3147 generated for allof the candidate n-grams in the candidate n-gram set 3146 earliergenerated from a single probability distribution set 3143.

Following generation of each probability set 3147, execution of atranscript component 2348 of the control routine 2340 may causeprocessor(s) 2350 of the node device 2300 to, based on the indicationsof the relative probabilities in the probability set 3147 for eachn-gram within the candidate n-gram set 3146, identify a candidate word3145 among each corresponding set of candidate words 3145 as a next wordmost likely spoken. The identified most likely spoken words associatedwith the range of time covered by the candidate n-gram set 3146 (whichcorresponds to one of the probability distribution sets 3143) may thenbe added to the transcript of the speech audio represented as a textdata set 3700.

FIGS. 23A, 23B and 23C illustrate examples of additional improvementsthat may be incorporated to the performance of various ones of thespeech-to-text operations described above. FIG. 23A illustrates aspectsof using the same acoustic model in the aforedescribed CTC segmentationtechnique and in the aforedescribed initial speech-to-text processingoperations. FIG. 23B illustrates aspects of the addition of dynamicper-word assignment of relative weighting to the use of an acousticmodel or a language model in identifying spoken words. FIG. 23Cillustrates aspects of selective concatenation of segments of audiospeech to effect the formation of longer transcripts to improve theresults of subsequent post-processing text analysis operations.

Turning to FIG. 23A, as previously discussed, due to the use of anacoustic model in the aforedescribed CTC segmentation technique of FIGS.18A-B, and due to use of an acoustic model in the aforedescribed initialspeech-to-text processing operations of FIGS. 21A-D, it may be that, insome embodiments, the very same acoustic model is used in both of thesepre-processing and speech-to-text processing operations. In suchembodiments, and where the processing system 2000 includes multiple nodedevices 2300 in which the single acoustic model may be used to performof those functions, it may be that the single acoustic model isinstantiated within those multiple node devices 2300 in preparation forthe performing the CTC segmentation technique, and then allowed toremain instantiated so as to already be in place within the storage ofthose multiple node devices 2300 for subsequent use in theaforedescribed initial speech-to-text processing operations. In thisway, advantage may be taken of an opportunity to avoid the consumptionof time, network resources and/or processing resources to instantiatethe same acoustic model, twice.

Thus, by way of example, and as specifically depicted in FIG. 23A, insuch embodiments where the acoustic model neural network 2234 may beimplemented using the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 incorporated into eachof such node devices 2300, it may be that execution of the configurationcomponent 2314 (as described earlier in connection with FIG. 18A) tocause instantiation of the neuromorphic device(s) 2355 to implement theacoustic model neural network 2234 enables the avoidance of subsequentexecution of the configuration component 2344 (as described earlier inconnection with FIG. 21A) to do so, again.

Turning to FIG. 23B, as previously discussed, it has become commonplaceto employ a two-stage combination of an acoustic model and a languagemodel in which the acoustic model is typically relied upon to perform afirst pass at identifying words that are likely to be the ones that werespoken, and the language model is typically relied upon to perform thenext and final pass by refining the identification of such spoken wordssuch that the words identified by the language model are the ones fromwhich a transcript is generated. However, and as also previouslydiscussed, the reduced error rate achieved by such a two-stagecombination is still widely seen as being too high. Again, a possiblereason for being still too high is that a good language model tends toresist identifying words that are actually spoken where those spokenwords include mistakes in vocabulary and/or syntax.

To improve upon the error rate of such a typical two-stage use of acombination of an acoustic model and a language model, in someembodiments, the transcript component 2548 may incorporate additionalfunctionality to dynamically vary the relative weighting assigned toeach of the acoustic model and the language model for each word to beidentified based on the degree of uncertainty in the per-graphemeprobability distributions output by the acoustic model for each word.Thus, in addition to being provided with the probability set 3147 andcorresponding candidate words 3145 associated with a segment of speechaudio as inputs, the transcript component 2548 may additionally receivethe corresponding probability distribution set 3143 that includes thecorresponding probability distributions for graphemes associated withthe same segment of speech audio.

In executing the transcript component 2548, core(s) 2551 of processor(s)2550 of the control device 2500 may be caused to use the probabilitydistributions of graphemes that are output by the acoustic model for thepronunciation of a single word spoken within the segment to derive ameasure of the degree of uncertainty for each of those probabilitydistributions. Such a degree of uncertainty may be based on degree of aperplexity, degree of entropy, or other statistical measures of thoseprobability distributions. Again, such a degree of uncertainty may serveas an indication of the degree to which a probability distribution for agrapheme presents an indefinite indication of which speech sound wasuttered during a corresponding portion of the segment of speech audio.

A probability distribution for graphemes that provides an uncertainindication of what speech sound was uttered may be one in which thedegree of probability for the grapheme indicated as being the mostprobable is not significantly higher than the degree of probability forthe grapheme indicated as being the second most probable. Morespecifically, where the difference between these two degrees ofprobability is less than a pre-determined threshold difference inprobabilities, the probability distribution may be deemed to provide anindication that the second most probable grapheme is almost as likely todescribe a speech sound that was uttered as the speech sound describedby the most probable grapheme such that it is deemed to be uncertain asto which of these two speech sounds is the one that was uttered.

In this way, the probability distribution may be said to provide anambiguous indication of what speech sound was uttered. In someembodiments, the degree of uncertainty used to control which model is tobe relied upon to identify a single word may be derived from measures ofsuch a difference in probabilities associated with the most probablegrapheme and the second most probable grapheme within each probabilitydistribution associated with the single word. These differences inprobabilities may be averaged or otherwise aggregated to derive a singlevalue indicative of the degree of uncertainty, which may then becompared to a threshold degree of uncertainty specified in theconfiguration data 2335. Where the degree of uncertainty is less thanthe threshold, greater weight may be assigned to the identification ofthe single word using the acoustic model, and where the degree ofuncertainty is greater than the threshold, greater weight may beassigned to the identification of the single word using the languagemodel.

In other embodiments, the degree of uncertainty used to control whichmodel is to be relied upon to identify a single word may be derived asan aggregate degree of perplexity or entropy. Stated differently, thedegree of uncertainty may be based on calculations of the degree ofentropy or degree of perplexity (which may be derived from a degree ofentropy) of each probability distribution associated with the singleword may be calculated and aggregated to derive a degree of uncertainty.In such embodiments, the aggregated degree of uncertainty may becompared to a threshold degree of uncertainty specified in theconfiguration data 2335. Again, where the degree of uncertainty is lessthan the threshold, greater weight may be assigned to the identificationof the single word using the acoustic model, and where the degree ofuncertainty is greater than the threshold, greater weight may beassigned to the identification of the single word using the languagemodel.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, both of the acoustic modeland the language model may always be utilized in combination for eachspoken word, regardless of whether the dynamic per-word determination ismade to give greater weight to relying more on the acoustic model or thelanguage model to identify a word. Thus, the beam searches associatedwith the execution of the beam search component 2347 to use the languagemodel (where the language model is based on an n-gram corpus) may alwaysbe performed regardless of such dynamic per-word assignment of relativeweighting. This may be the case where an output of the language model isemployed as an input to the dynamic per-word relative weighting assignedto the acoustic and language models in addition to degree of uncertaintyfor the probability distributions for the corresponding graphemes.

Alternatively, in other embodiments, it may be that the language modelis not used to provide any input to the dynamic per-word relativeweighting. In such other embodiments, such a situation may provide theopportunity to entirely refrain from consuming processing and or storageresources to perform beam searches associated with using the languagemodel to identify a particular word if the results of the dynamicper-word relative weighting are such that the identification of the wordthat would be provided by the language model will not be used. In thisway, use of the language model may be made contingent on such dynamicper-word relative weighting.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, speech recognition inthe human brain involves using a combination of detecting andrecognizing speech sounds as received by the ears, and recognizingportions of language based on language rules. It has been observed that,where speech sounds are able to be clearly heard, speech recognition inthe human brain tends to rely more heavily on those sounds to determinewhat was said. However, such reliance on speech sounds as received bythe human ears may become insufficient where acoustic conditions aresuch that some speech sounds are masked enough to not be heard such thatthere are noticeable gaps in the speech sounds as received. It has beenobserved that, where at least some speech sounds are less clearly heard,speech recognition in the human brain tends to rely more heavily onlanguage rules to determine what was said, thereby effectively “fillingin the gaps” among the speech sounds that were able to be heard. To putthis more simply, it has been observed that the human brain will takeadvantage of opportunities to not expend the resources needed to uselanguage rules for such purposes when it is not necessary.

The use of degrees of uncertainty to select between the acoustic andlanguage models in identifying each word, as just described, effectivelyachieves a similar result. Where acoustic conditions are sufficientlygood as to enable spoken words to be captured clearly, the probabilitydistributions output by the acoustic model are more likely todemonstrate greater certainty in being able to identify words throughuse of the acoustic model, alone. However, where acoustic conditions aresufficiently poor as to degrade the ability to capture spoken wordsclearly, the probability distributions output by the acoustic model aremore likely to demonstrate greater uncertainty in being able to identifywords through use of the acoustic model alone, thereby inviting the useof the language model to identify words. Thus, such an evaluation of atleast the degree of uncertainty of the probability distributions outputby the acoustic model provide an indirect path for taking acousticconditions into account in dynamically determining how each spoken wordis ultimately identified.

However, as also depicted in FIG. 23B, alternative embodiments arepossible in which the acoustic conditions under which speech sounds arecaptured may be more directly taken into account. Specifically, it maybe that the indications of audio noise level 2235 that are determinedand stored as part of performing the APA segmentation technique (asdescribed earlier in connection with FIG. 17A) may be used as anotherinput to the transcript component 2548 in determining whether to use theacoustic model or the language model in selecting each word forinclusion in a transcript. By way of example, while it may be that thedegree of uncertainty demonstrated in the probability distributions fromthe acoustic model may be a primary factor in making such selections, anindication in the audio noise level 2235 of there being audio noise at alevel exceeding a pre-determined upper limit may trigger the use of thelanguage model, regardless of the degree of uncertainty demonstrated inthe probability distributions from the acoustic model.

Turning to FIG. 23C, from experimentation and observation, it has beenfound that, generally, many forms of automated text analyses are able tobe more successfully used with longer transcripts. Again, it has beenfound that shorter transcripts tend to cause an overemphasis on wordswith greater frequencies of use in a language, with the result thatanalyses to derive topics and/or other insights concerning the text of atranscript tend to produce less useful results.

As an approach to counteracting this effect, in some embodiments, all ofthe text derived from a single piece of speech audio may be maintainedand treated (at least for purposes of performing text analyses) as asingle transcript. More specifically, the text generated fromspeech-to-text processing of a single speech data set 3100 may beorganized within the text data set 3700 as a single transcript. However,as also previously discussed, a single transcript encompassing speechaudio that is especially long and/or that includes multipleconversations and/or verbal presentations may also beget less usefulresults when text analyses are performed thereon.

Thus, in some embodiments, rules concerning lengths of transcripts,frequencies of words, and/or acoustic features such as relativelylengthy pauses may be used to bring about the generation of lengthsand/or quantities of transcripts for each piece of speech audio that aremore amenable to providing useful results from automated text analyses.More specifically, a set of such rules may be used to cause theselective concatenation of the text of consecutive sets of segments ofspeech audio stored as a single speech data set 3100 to form multipletranscripts that may be stored together as a set of transcripts within asingle corresponding text data set 3700 (or as a set of transcripts thatare each stored as a separate text data set 3700). Such a text data set3700 (or such a multitude of text data sets 3700) may includeindications of the relative temporal order of the multiple transcriptsto preserve at least that contextual aspect.

Indications of such rules and/or thresholds therefore may be maintainedas part of the configuration data 2335. Among such thresholds may be aminimum and/or maximum threshold for the size of a transcript, which maybe expressed in terms of quantities of words and/or lengths of timeperiods. In some of such embodiments, it may be that text associatedwith segments of speech audio may be automatically combined to formtranscripts that have a length that meets such word count and/or timethresholds.

Alternatively or additionally, the configuration data 2335 may specify aminimum threshold quantity of words in a transcript that are required tohave a frequency of occurrence in a language that falls below aspecified maximum threshold. In some of such embodiments, it may be thattext associated with segments of speech audio may be combined to formtranscripts in which the combination of words includes such a requisitequantity of such lower frequency words. In so doing, the storage, withina corpus data set 3400, of uni-grams that are each correlated to anindication of frequency of use may be relied upon as a source of suchindications of frequency.

Also alternatively or additionally, the configuration data 2335 mayspecify a minimum threshold length of time for a pause between speechsounds that may be greater than the minimum threshold length for alikely sentence pause such that it may be deemed a likely pause betweenconversations and/or verbal presentations where a change of subject maybe more likely to occur. In some of such embodiments, occurrences ofsuch longer pauses may be used as breakpoints at which text may bedivided to define multiple transcripts. There may still be anenforcement of minimum and/or maximum thresholds as a default to addresssituations in which too few or too many of such longer pauses are foundto occur.

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, 24E, 24F and 24G, taken together, illustrate,in greater detail, aspects of the generation and/or augmentation of ann-gram corpus implementing an n-gram language model. More specifically,FIGS. 24A-G present, in greater detail, aspects of the generation and/oraugmentation of a corpus data set 3400 based on the contents of a textdata set 3700. FIG. 24A illustrates aspects of the distribution ofportions of a selected text data set 3700 among multiple node devices2300 in preparation for the generation of n-grams therefrom. FIG. 24Billustrates aspects of the generation of a portion of an n-gram corpusfrom each of the portions of the selected text data set 3700. FIGS.24C-D illustrate aspects of the collection and combining of thegenerated portions of n-gram corpus to either form an entirely newcorpus data set 3400, or augment an existing corpus data set 3400. FIG.24E illustrates aspects of the distribution of portions of the new oraugmented corpus data set 3400 among multiple node devices 2300 inpreparation for the deduplication of n-grams therein. FIGS. 24F-Gillustrate aspects of the collection and recombining of the deduplicatedportions of the corpus data set 3400, and the calculation and/orre-calculation of relative frequencies and/or probabilities ofoccurrence of each of the n-grams therein.

Turning to FIG. 24A, within the control device 2500, execution of thecontrol routine 2510 may cause processor(s) 2550 thereof to selectparticular ones of the node devices 2300 for use in performingoperations to generate or augment an n-gram corpus from a selected textdata set 3700. The text data set 3700 may have been previously generatedas a transcript from speech audio, and/or the text data set 3700 mayhave been generated from any of a variety of other sources.

Following the selection of node devices 2300, in executing acoordination component 2519 of the control routine 2510, processor(s)2550 of the control device 2500 may be caused to cooperate withprocessors 2350 of the node devices 2300 to coordinate communicationsthrough the network 2999 to cause the provision of a different portion3710 of the text data set 3700 to each of the selected node devices2300. In this way the selected node devices 2300 are prepared for use ingenerating n-grams from the selected text data set 3700 in a distributedmanner.

Turning to FIG. 24B, in some embodiments, the processor(s) 2350 of oneor more of the selected node devices 2300 may be capable of supportingmultiple execution threads 2352 by which multiple different executableroutines and/or multiple instances of an executable routine may beexecuted at least partially in parallel. Within each of such selectednode devices 2300, the received text data portion 3710 may be dividedinto multiple text data sub-portions 3711 that are distributed amongmultiple execution threads 2352 therein. Within each such executionthread 2352, execution of an n-gram component 2317 of an instance of thecontrol routine 2310 may cause a core of a processor 2350 to parsethrough the text within the corresponding text data sub-portion 3711 togenerate n-grams therefrom.

In so doing, within each execution thread 2352, it may be that an n-grambuffer 2237 is instantiated to temporarily assemble and store sets ofthe generated n-grams until the n-gram buffer 2237 has been filled to atleast a predetermined degree, whereupon the contents of the n-grambuffer 2237 may be added to a corresponding corpus data sub-portion3411. In some embodiments, the n-gram buffer 2237 may be implemented asa hash map in which a two-dimensional (2D) array is defined wherein eachrow thereof is to store an n-gram generated from the correspondingtext-data sub-portion 3711, along with a count of instances of thatn-gram that have been generated. As each n-gram is generated from thetext of the text data sub-portion 3711, a hash value may be taken ofthat n-gram, and that hash value may become the index value used tospecify which row within the n-gram buffer 2237 is the row in which thatn-gram is to be stored, and in which the count for that n-gram is to beincremented to reflect the generation of an instance thereof. Each timethe contents of the n-gram buffer 2237 are added to the correspondingcorpus data sub-portion 3411, the counts for all of the rows therein maybe reset to indicate a quantity of 0 instances.

Such use of an n-gram buffer 2237 implemented as such a hash map may aidin reducing data storage requirements for each execution thread 2352and/or for each corpus data sub-portion by enabling some degree ofdeduplication of n-grams to be performed. More specifically, such use ofhash values as index values for rows within such an implementation of ahash table enables multiple instances of the same n-gram to berelatively quickly and efficiently identified so that just a single rowof storage space within the n-gram buffer 2237 is occupied for thosemultiple instances, instead of allowing each of those instances tooccupy a separate storage location within a data structure, eventemporarily.

Such use of distributed processing across multiple node devices 2300and/or across multiple execution threads 2352 within each node device2300, and such use of hash maps in performing at least an initialdeduplication of n-grams, may serve to enable relatively large n-gramcorpuses to be generated and used in the performance of speech-to-textprocessing. As a result, supporting a larger than commonplace n-gramcorpus that includes larger n-grams that include relatively largequantities of words (e.g., greater than the more commonplace quantitiesof 5 words or less) becomes practical. Alternatively or additionally,supporting a larger than commonplace n-gram corpus that includes highlyinfrequently used n-grams (e.g., n-grams that include names of specificpeople and/or places such that they may be found in just one ofthousands of text documents) also becomes practical. As those skilled inthe art will readily recognize, it is commonplace practice to allow onlyn-grams that occur in texts with a frequency above a predeterminedminimum threshold frequency to be included in an n-gram corpus in aneffort to limit the overall size thereof. The ability to support alarger n-gram corpus may render such a restriction unnecessary, therebyincreasing the accuracy that is able to be achieved in performing tospeech-to-text processing.

Within each of the selected node devices 2300, following the use of theentirety of the text data sub-portion 3711 in generating n-grams, themultiple execution threads 2352 may be caused to cooperate to assemblethe multiple corpus data sub-portions 3411 therein to form a singlecorresponding corpus data portion 3410.

Turning to FIG. 24C, within the control device 2500, further executionof the coordination component 2519 may cause processor(s) 2550 of thecontrol device 2500 to cooperate with processors 2350 of the nodedevices 2300 to coordinate communications through the network 2999 tocause the corpus data portions 3410 generated within each of theselected node devices to be provided to the one or more storage devices2100. In so doing, the multiple corpus data portions 3410 may becombined to form a new corpus data set 3400, or may be combined andadded to an existing corpus data set 3400.

Turning to FIG. 24D, as depicted, each of the corpus data sets 3400stored within the one or more storage devices 2100 may employ a 2D arraydata structure of rows 3421 and columns 3422. As also depicted, whileeach n-gram may occupy a single row 3421, each word within an n-gramoccupies a separate column 3422 such that the number of columns occupiedby each n-gram is based on the quantity of words that it includes. Itshould be noted that FIG. 24D depicts a deliberately highly simplifiedexample of a very small n-gram corpus that includes relatively fewuni-grams 3431 and relatively few bi-grams 3432. As depicted, the singleword within each of the uni-grams 3431 occupies just column 3422 a,while the pair of words within each of the bi-grams 3432 occupies bothcolumns 3422 a and 3422 b.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, the currently widelyused standard format for organizing n-gram corpuses to implement alanguage model is the “ARPA” text format originally introduced by DougB. Paul of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The ARPA format isgenerally implemented as an ASCII text file in which each n-gram isstored within a separate line of text separated by carriage returns.Although this format is widely accepted, it suffers variousdisadvantages, including slower access due to requiring a text parser tointerpret the contents of each line (not all of which include n-grams).Another limitation of the ARPA format is the imposition of a requirementthat all n-grams having the same quantity of words must be groupedtogether, and must be provided with a textual label indicating thequantity of words therein.

In contrast, the 2D array format depicted in FIG. 24D does not require atext parser for such purposes as it relies on the row-columnorganization of the array structure to enable speedier addressabilityand access to each word of n-gram. Also, as depicted, there may be noneed to group the uni-grams 3431 together and separately from thebi-grams 3432, or to provide distinct labels or other form ofidentification for each group. Instead, it may simply be the quantity ofcolumns 3422 occupied by each n-gram that determines the quantity ofwords therein. Again, the single word of each uni-gram 3431 occupies thesingle column 3422 a, while the pair of words of each bi-gram 3432occupies the pair of columns 3422 a and 3422 b, and so on. However, itshould be noted that such a 2D array format enables relatively easyimportation of the n-grams and related information from the ASCII textfile structure of the ARPA format. Specifically, a text parser may beused just once to parse such a text file structure to identify n-gramsand related information with which to fill the rows of the 2D arrayformat.

As a result of using such a 2D array format, the combining of the corpusdata portions 3410 to form a new corpus data set 3400, or to add to anexisting corpus data set 3400, becomes a relatively simple matter ofcombining rows 3421. In this way, the need for a text parser, as well astext file editing functionality, is eliminated.

Turning to FIG. 24E, following such combining of rows 3421 as part ofcombining corpus data portions 3410 containing newly generated n-grams,as just discussed, processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 may becaused to cooperate with the one or more storage devices 2100 tore-distribute the newly formed or newly augmented corpus data set 3400among multiple node devices 2300 in preparation for being refined. Morespecifically, although the newly formed or newly augmented corpus dataset 3400 may contain a relatively large quantity of newly generatedn-grams, there may remain duplications of n-grams therein, at least as aresult of having been generated in a distributed manner across multiplenode devices 2300. Also, to fully enable the use of the corpus data set3400 as a language model, relative frequencies and/or probabilities ofoccurrence for each n-gram must be calculated, or re-calculated.

Unlike the relatively simple division of the text data set 3700 intotext data portions 3710 earlier discussed in reference to FIG. 24A, inFIG. 24E, the rows 3421 of n-grams within the corpus data set 3400 maybe reorganized into groups based on hash values taken of each n-gram.More precisely, a hash value may be taken of each n-gram, and then then-grams may be reorganized within the corpus data set 3400 based on anascending or descending order of their hash values. This advantageouslyhas the result of causing the rows 3421 of duplicate n-grams to becomeadjacent rows 3421. With the rows 3421 of n-grams so reorganized,sub-ranges of hash values within the full range of hash values may bederived as a mechanism for dividing the corpus data set 3400 intomultiple corpus data groups 3415 that contain relatively similarquantities of rows 3421 for distribution among the multiple node devices2300. In this way, each set of adjacent rows 3421 of duplicate n-gram iskept together and provided together to a single node device 2300 fordeduplication.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, it may be thatprocessor(s) of the one or more storage devices 2100 are capable ofperforming at least a limited range of processing operations needed tomaintain local and/or distributed file systems as part of storing datasets of widely varying sizes within either a single storage device 2100or across multiple storage devices 2100. In such embodiments, theprocessor(s) of the one or more storage devices 2100 may be capable ofperforming at least a limited range of data reorganization functions,including the grouping of rows within array-type data structures basedon a variety of organizing criteria, including hash values. Thus, insuch embodiments, it may be that processor(s) 2550 of the control deviceare caused, by execution of the coordinating component 2519, to transmita command to the one or more storage devices 2100 to cause such areorganization of the rows 3421 within the corpus data set 3400, priorto the division of the corpus data set 3400 into the multiple corpusdata groups 3415 by sub-ranges of those very same hash values.

Turning to FIG. 24F, within each of the multiple node devices 2300,execution of a compacting component 2318 may cause processor(s) 2350thereof to iterate through the rows 3421 of n-grams within itscorresponding corpus data group 3415 to identify instances of two ormore rows 3421 containing duplicate n-grams. For each such instance ofduplicate n-grams, the two or more rows 3421 containing duplicates of ann-gram may be reduced to a single row 3421 containing just a single copyof that n-gram, and an indication of at least the quantity of duplicatesidentified may be stored within the single row 3421.

As such deduplication of n-grams within each corpus data group 3415 iscompleted, the corpus data groups 3415 may be provided to the controldevice 2500, where they may be re-combined to recreate the corpus dataset 3400. In so doing, execution of a probability component 2511 of thecontrol routine 2510 may cause processor(s) 2550 of the control device2500 to calculate values for the frequency and/or probability ofoccurrence for each n-gram, and to augment each row 3421 with thosevalue(s). More specifically, and as depicted in FIG. 24G, one or morecolumns 3422 that were previously unoccupied across all of the rows 3421may be caused to store such frequency and/or probability values.

Returning to FIG. 24F, as will be familiar to those skilled the art,there may arise situations in which the n-grams within the corpus dataset 3400 do not cover all possible combinations of the words that arepresent within the corpus data set 3400. This may result in a defaultassignment of a zero probability value to such combinations of words asif such combinations could never occur, and this may adversely affectthe accuracy of the resulting language mode in speech-to-textoperations.

To at least mitigate this adverse affect, the processor(s) 2550 of thecontrol device 2500 may be caused to provide one of a variety of typesof “smoothing” of values indicative of probability of occurrence for atleast a subset of the n-grams within the corpus data set 3400. Morespecifically, for at least some n-grams with a higher probability ofoccurring, their probability values may be reduced by a relatively smalldegree (thereby indicating a slightly reduced probability of occurring),and the probability value assigned for the occurrence of n-grams notincluded within the corpus data set 3400 may be increased to a non-zerovalue.

Among the widely accepted techniques for smoothing are various “backoff”calculations that may be used to derive a backoff value by which theprobability values of at least a subset of the n-grams may be multipliedto reduce those values by a relatively small degree. As those skilled inthe art will readily recognize, one widely used technique forcalculating the backoff value is the Katz back-off model introduced bySlava M. Katz, but this technique becomes less effective as the size ofthe n-gram corpus increases. Another widely known technique is the“Stupid Backoff” introduced by Google, Inc. in 2007, but this techniqueis based on the use of a fixed value which, despite being capable of atleast somewhat better results than the Katz back-off model, can alsoyield increasingly less effective results as the size of the n-gramcorpus increases.

To better handle the potentially larger than commonplace size of then-gram corpus within the corpus data set 3400, the probability component2511 may employ an entirely new calculation:

$\text{Backoff}\left( \text{n} \right) = \frac{\left| {\text{Set}\left( {\text{n}\mspace{6mu}\text{gram}} \right)} \right|}{\left| {\text{Set}\left( {\text{n}\mspace{6mu}\text{-}\,\,\text{1 gram}} \right)} \right|}$

In this new calculation, the backoff value for an n-gram corpus of up ton words per n-gram may be derived by dividing the quantity of n-gramsthat include n words by the quantity of n-grams that include n-1 words.This backoff value is able to be quickly and simply calculated once, andthen the values for the probability of occurrence of all of the n-gramsmay be multiplied by this backoff value. Since this backoff value iscalculated based on the n-grams actually present within the corpus dataset 3400, instead of being based on an arbitrary fixed value, theresulting n-gram perplexity is not rendered artificially smaller than itshould be, thereby enabling better accuracy in the use of the corpusdata set 3400 as a language model for speech-to-text processingoperations.

FIGS. 25A, 25B, 25C, 25D, 25E and 25F, together, illustrate an exampleembodiment of a logic flow 4100. The logic flow 4100 may berepresentative of some or all of the operations executed by one or moreembodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 4100 mayillustrate operations performed by core(s) 2351 and/or 2551 of theprocessor(s) 2350 and/or 2550 of the node devices 2300 and/or of thecontrol device 2500, respectively, in executing various ones of thecontrol routines 2310, 2340, 2510 and 2540.

Starting at FIG. 25A, at 4110, processor(s) of a control device of aprocessing system (e.g., the processor(s) 2550 of the control device2500 of the processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C) may receive a requestfrom a requesting device via a network (e.g., the requesting device 2700via the network 2999) to perform speech-to-text conversion of speechaudio represented by a specified speech data set (e.g., one of thespeech data sets 3100).

At 4112, pre-processing of the speech audio represented by the specifiedspeech data set may begin with either a processor of the control deviceor processor(s) of one or more node devices of the processing system(e.g., one or more of the node devices 2300) dividing the speech dataset into data chunks that each represent a chunk of the speech audio. Ashas been discussed, the pre-processing may entail the performances ofmultiple pause detection techniques (e.g., the combination of at leastthe APA pause detection technique of FIGS. 17A-C, and the CTC pausedetection technique of FIGS. 18A-B) at least partially in parallel. Asalso discussed, where the processing system does include multiple nodedevices (e.g., the multiple node devices 2300), it may be that eachpause detection technique is assigned to be performed by a different oneof the node devices. Alternatively, where the processing system does notso include such a multitude of node devices, it may be that each pausedetection technique is assigned to be performed by a different coreand/or a different processor of the control device.

It should again be noted that the chunks of the speech audio used bydifferent ones of the pause detection techniques may not be of the samesize, or more precisely, may not represent chunks of the speech audiothat are of the same length (e.g., as previously discussed, the chunksof speech audio generated for the APA pause detection technique may beshorter than those generated for the CTC pause detection technique).Therefore, it may be that multiple different sets of chunks of thespeech audio are generated at 4112. More precisely, where each pausedetection technique is assigned to a different node device or to adifferent thread of execution, it may be that the division of the speechaudio into chunks is among the operations that are also so assigned suchthat separate node devices or separate cores are used to separatelygenerate chunks of speech audio that are of appropriate length for theircorresponding one of the pause detection techniques.

Regardless of the exact manner in which chunks of speech audio aregenerated at 4112, as depicted, multiple portions of pre-processing maybe performed at least partially in parallel across FIGS. 25B-25D,including the APA and CTC pause detection techniques.

Turning to FIG. 25B, and following the generation of APA data chunks at4112 that are of appropriate size for use as inputs to the APA pausedetection technique (e.g., the data chunks 3110 a), at 4120, core(s) ofa processor of either a node device or of the control device may analyzethe chunk of speech audio represented by each APA data chunk to identifyand measure the peak amplitude present therein. At 4122, with the peakamplitudes of each of the APA data chunks so measured, a pre-selectedpercentile amplitude may be derived from across all of the measured peakamplitudes from across all of the APA data chunks, and may be designatedto serve as a threshold amplitude (e.g., the threshold amplitude 2232).

At 4124, the peak amplitude measured within each of the APA data chunksmay be compared to the threshold amplitude. At 4126, each APA data chunkrepresenting a chunk of speech audio having a peak amplitude greaterthan the threshold amplitude may be designated as a speech data chunk(e.g., a speech data chunk 3110 s), and each APA data chunk representinga chunk of speech audio having a peak amplitude less than the thresholdamplitude may be designated as a pause data chunk (e.g., a pause datachunk 3110 p). Again, in various differing embodiments, each APA datachunk representing a chunk of speech audio having a peak amplitude equalto the threshold amplitude may be designated as either a speech datachunk or a pause data chunk.

At 4130, a first set of temporally consecutive APA data chunks of apre-selected quantity, starting with the temporally earliest one of theAPA data chunks, may be selected and analyzed to identify the longestconsecutive subset of the APA data chunks therein that have beendesignated as pause data chunks, thereby corresponding to the longestpause present across all of the corresponding consecutive chunks ofspeech audio represented by the set of APA data chunks. The identifiedlongest pause may be designated a likely sentence pause.

At 4132, an indication of the just-designated likely sentence pause maythen be noted within an APA pause set of indications of likely sentencepauses (e.g., the APA pause set 3116 a of likely sentence pauses). Aspreviously discussed, such an indication of a likely sentence pausewithin the APA pause set may include an indication of the temporallocation of the likely sentence pause within the entirety of the speechaudio.

At 4134, a check may be made of whether there are any more APA datachunks beyond (i.e., temporally later than) the set of APA data chunksjust analyzed. If so, then at 4136, another set of temporallyconsecutive APA data chunks of a pre-selected quantity may be selected,where the newly selected set may start either 1) with the APA chunk thattemporally follows the subset of APA data chunks that make up thelongest pause of the last set, or 2) amidst the subset of APA datachunks that make up the longest pause of the last set (e.g., with theAPA chunk at the midpoint of that longest pause). The newly selected setof APA data chunks may then be analyzed to identify the longestconsecutive subset of the APA data chunks with the new set that havebeen designated as pause data chunks, thereby corresponding to thelongest pause present across all of the corresponding consecutive chunksof speech audio represented by the set of APA data chunks. Theidentified longest pause may be designated a likely sentence pause.Again, at 4132, an indication of the just-designated likely sentencepause may then be noted within the APA pause set of likely sentencepauses.

However, if at 4134, there are no more APA data chunks beyond the set ofAPA data chunks just analyzed, then preparations are made to perform aspeaker diarization technique, starting at 4160 in FIG. 25E.

Turning to FIG. 25C, and following the generation of APA data chunks at4112 that are of appropriate size for use as inputs to the APA pausedetection technique (e.g., the data chunks 3110 a), at 4114, core(s) ofa processor of either a node device or of the control device may analyzethe chunk of speech audio represented by each APA data chunk to identifyand measure an amplitude of audio noise present therein. As previouslydiscussed in reference to FIG. 17A, it may be that such measurements ofa level of audio noise may be taken coincident with the taking ofmeasurements of peak amplitude of each of the APA data chunks. However,it should be noted that other embodiments are possible in whichmeasurements of a level of audio noise may be taken of other chunksgenerated for another of the multiple pause detection techniques, ormeasurement(s) may be taken of a level of audio noise in the speechaudio at a time and/or in a manner that may be entirely unconnected withany of the pause detection techniques.

At 4116, with the audio noise levels of each of the APA data chunks someasured, at least one indication of the audio noise level within thespeech audio (e.g., the audio noise level 3112) may be derived using anyof a variety of ways. By way of example, and as previously discussed,such an indicated audio noise level may be based on average noiselevels, lowest noise levels, and/or highest noise levels across all ofthe APA data chunks.

Following the derivation of the indicated audio noise level,preparations are made to perform a speaker diarization technique,starting at 4160 in FIG. 25E.

Turning to FIG. 25D, and following the generation of CTC data chunks at4112 that are of appropriate size for use as inputs to the CTC pausedetection technique (e.g., the data chunks 3110 c), at 4140, core(s) ofa processor of either a node device or within the control device mayinstantiate and/or configure an acoustic model neural network within thenode device or of the control device (e.g., the acoustic model neuralnetwork 2234). As has been discussed, the acoustic model neural networkthat is so configured may incorporate a CTC output (e.g., the CTC output2235) that would normally be used to output a blank symbol that providesan indication of their being consecutive instances of a character thatare not to be merged. At 4142, the temporally earliest one of the CTCdata chunks may be provided to the acoustic model neural network as aninput.

At 4144, if there are no strings of consecutive blank symbols output bythe CTC output of the acoustic model neural network, then a check may bemade at 4154 of whether there are any more CTC data chunks remaining tobe provided to the acoustic model neural network as input. If there isat least one more of such CTC data chunks remaining, then the temporallynext CTC data chunk (i.e., the next CTC data chunk in order from thetemporally earliest to the temporally latest) may be provided to theacoustic model neural network as input at 4156.

However, if at 4144, there are one or more strings of consecutive blanksymbols output by the CTC output of the acoustic model neural network inresponse to the provision thereto of a CTC data chunk as input, then at4146, the length of each of those one or more strings may be compared toa pre-determined threshold blank string length. At 4148, if there is anystring of consecutive blank symbols that is at least as long as thethreshold blank string length, then each such string may be designatedas a likely sentence pause. If, at 4150, there are no strings ofconsecutive blank symbols in the output of the neural network that havebeen so designated as likely sentence pauses, then the check of whetherthere are any more CTC data chunks remaining may be made at 4154.However, if at 4150, there are one or more strings of consecutive blanksymbols that have been so designated as likely sentence pauses, then foreach such string, an indication of a likely sentence pause may then beadded to the CTC pause set of indications of likely sentence pauses at4152, and then the check may be made at 4154 for more CTC data chunks.

However, if at 4164, there are no more CTC data chunks, thenpreparations are made to perform a speaker diarization technique,starting at 4160 in FIG. 25E.

Turning to FIG. 25E, at 4160, core(s) of a processor of either a nodedevice or of the control device may continue the pre-processing of thespeech audio of the speech data set by again dividing the speech dataset into data chunks that each represent a chunk of the speech audio,this time for use in speaker diarization (e.g., the speaker diarizationdata chunks 3110 d). As has been discussed, the pre-processing mayentail the performance of at least one speaker diarization technique(e.g., the speaker diarization technique of FIGS. 19A-D). As alsodiscussed, where more than one speaker diarization technique is to beperformed, and where the processing system does include multiple nodedevices (e.g., the multiple node devices 2300), it may be that eachspeaker diarization technique is assigned to be performed by a differentone of the node devices. Alternatively, where the processing system doesnot so include such a multitude of node devices, it may be that eachspeaker diarization technique is assigned to be performed by a differentcore and/or a different processor of the control device. However, in theexample performance of pre-processing and processing operationsperformed in this logic flow 4100, it is assumed that just a singlespeaker diarization technique is performed.

In addition to dividing the speech audio of the speech data set intospeaker diarization data chunks, each of the speaker diarization datachunks may be further subdivided into data fragments. Further, at 4162,the indications of likely sentence pauses from each of the pause setsgenerated by the multiple pause detection techniques may be used tofilter out (or otherwise remove) each data fragment that represents aportion of speech audio in which even a portion of a sentence pause islikely to have occurred. In this way, it becomes more likely that all ofthe data fragments that are present within each speaker diarization datachunk will include speech sounds.

At 4164, core(s) of a processor of either a node device or of thecontrol device may instantiate and/or configure a speaker diarizationneural network within the node device or within the control device(e.g., the speaker diarization neural network 2237).

At 4166, the temporally earliest one of the speaker diarization datachunks may be provided to the acoustic model neural network as an input.More precisely, each of the data fragments of that speaker diarizationdata chunk may be provided to the speaker diarization neural network asan input to cause the generation of a corresponding speaker vector. Aspreviously discussed, each speaker vector includes a set of binaryvalues and/or other numeric values that are descriptive of various vocalcharacteristics of a speaker.

At 4168, clustering of the speaker vectors generated from the datafragments of the temporally earliest speaker diarization data chunks maybe performed to identify the speakers who spoke within the chunk ofspeech audio represented by the speaker diarization data chunk. Aspreviously discussed, such clustering may include one or morerepetitions of performances of clustering of the speaker vectors of thespeaker diarization data chunk each time a new speaker is identified.

At 4170, each speaker vector is matched to one of the speakersidentified through the performance of clustering for the speakerdiarization data chunk. At 4172, the identities of the speakers assignedto each pair of temporally consecutive speaker vectors are compared toidentify each instance of a likely change of speakers within the speakerdiarization data chunk. At 4174, indications of any of such identifiedlikely changes in speaker are stored within a change set of indicationsof likely speaker changes.

At 4176, a check may be made as to whether there are any speakerdiarization data chunks remaining that have not been put through thespeaker diarization technique just described. If so at 4176, then thetemporally next speaker diarization data chunk may be provided to thespeaker diarization neural network as an input at 4178. More precisely,each of the data fragments of that speaker diarization data chunk may beprovided to the speaker diarization neural network as an input to causethe generation of a corresponding speaker vector.

However, if at 4176, there are no more speaker diarization data chunks,then segmentation may be performed at 4180 in FIG. 25F in preparationsfor perform speech-to-text processing.

Turning to FIG. 25F, at 4180, core(s) of a processor of either a nodedevice or of the control device may assign relative weighting factors toeach of the pause detection techniques by which a pause set of likelysentence pauses has been generated. As has been discussed, suchweighting factors may be made dynamically adjustable based on theearlier derived indication of audio noise level, and this may be done inrecognition of the differing degrees to which each of the pausedetection techniques is susceptible to the presence of audio noisewithin speech audio. At 4182, the assigned relative weighting factorsmay be used in the combining of the multiple pause sets of likelysentences pauses to generate a single set of indications of likelysentence pauses.

At 4184, core(s) of a processor of each of one or more node devices,and/or core(s) of a processor of the control device may then use thesingle set of indications of likely sentence pauses together with thechange set of indications of likely speaker changes from the performanceof the speaker diarization technique to generate a segmentation set ofindications of the manner in which the speech data set is to be dividedinto data segments that each represent a segment of the speech audio ofthe speech data set.

At 4186, core(s) of a processor of each of one or more node devices,and/or cores(s) of a processor of the control device may re-divide thespeech data set into data segments that each represent a segment of thespeech audio based on the segmentation set. With the provision ofsegments of the speech audio to use as an input, the processingoperations to perform the requested speech-to-text may begin. As hasbeen discussed, due to the performance of the pre-processing operations,each point at which the speech audio is divided to form segments is atleast likely to be a midpoint of a sentence pause and/or of a speakerchange, thereby making it more likely that each segment will fullycontain the complete pronunciations of phonemes, words and/or entiresentences by an individual speaker.

At 4190, feature detection is performed on each segment to detectinstances of a pre-selected set of acoustic features that are to beprovide as an input to an acoustic model for purposes of identifyinglikely text characters. At 4192, within each node device and/or withinthe control device, core(s) of a processor may again instantiate anacoustic model neural network with CTC output, but this time forpurposes of identifying characters. Again, the same type of acousticmodel neural network with CTC output that was used for the CTC pausedetection technique may be used again for character identification.

At 4194, each data segment is provided to the acoustic model neuralnetwork as input for the identification of likely text characters (alongwith blank symbols used to identify instances of identical consecutivetext characters). At 4196, such identified text characters are providedto implementation(s) of a language model as input for the identificationof words.

At 4198, a processor of a node device or a processor of the controldevice may assemble the identified words, in temporal order, to formtext data that represents the text into which the speech audio of thespeech data set has been converted (e.g., the text data 2519). Aspreviously discussed, such text data may then be transmitted back to thedevice from which the request was received to perform the speech-to-textconversion.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example embodiment of another logic flow 4200.The logic flow 4200 may be representative of some or all of theoperations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. Morespecifically, the logic flow 4200 may illustrate operations performed bycore(s) 2351 and/or 2551 of the processor(s) 2350 and/or 2550 of thenode devices 2300 and/or of the control device 2500, respectively, inexecuting various ones of the control routines 2340 and 2540.

At 4210, core(s) of processor(s) of a node device of a processing system(e.g., the core(s) 2351 of the processor(s) 2350 of one of the nodedevices 2300 of the processing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C), or core(s)of processor(s) of a control device of the processing system (e.g., thecore(s) 2551 of the processor(s) 2550 of the control device 2500 of theprocessing system 2000 of FIGS. 14A-C) may perform feature detection onone or more consecutive frames of a segment of speech audio covering aperiod of time during which a next word was spoken. As has beendiscussed, the output of the performance of feature detection may bedata structures (e.g., the feature vectors 3142) that provideindications of detected instances of various acoustic features, alongwith indications of when those instances occurred.

At 4212, such feature vectors generated from the performance of featuredetection may be provided as input to an acoustic model. As has beendiscussed, the acoustic model may be implemented using a neural network(e.g., the neural network 2355 or 2555, which may include a CTC output2356 or 2556, respectively), or using any of a variety of othertechnologies.

At 4214, the core(s) of the processor(s) of either the node device orthe control device may be caused to use the acoustic model with thefeature vectors as input to generate corresponding probabilitydistributions of graphemes. As has been discussed, each grapheme may becorrelated, either individually or in various combinations, to one ormore speech sounds. As a result, each of the probability distributionsprovides an indication of relative probabilities of various differentspeech sounds having been uttered at a particular time.

At 4216, from multiple probability distributions that are associatedwith the pronunciation of the next single word that was spoken and thatis to be identified for addition to a transcript, a set of apre-determined quantity of candidate words (e.g., the candidate words3145) may be generated, where each of the candidate words is among thosethat are most likely to be the next spoken word. At 4220, for eachcandidate word in the set of candidate words, a corresponding candidaten-gram may be generated that is to become part of a corresponding set ofcandidate n-grams (e.g., the set 3146 of candidate n-grams).

At 4222, the core(s) of the processor(s) of either the node device orthe control device may be caused to use the language model with the setof candidate n-grams as input to generate a corresponding set ofprobabilities (e.g., one of the probability sets 3147). As has beendiscussed, where the language model is based on an n-gram corpus (e.g.,one of the corpus data sets 3400), beam searches may be used to retrievethe per-n-gram probabilities stored as part of the n-gram corpus. As aresult, each of the probability sets provides the relative probabilitiesof the set of n-grams, thereby enabling the most probable candidaten-gram of that set to be determined, and in so doing, enabling the mostprobable corresponding candidate word to be identified as the next mostlikely word to be spoken, according to the language model.

At 4230, each of the probability distributions for graphemes associatedwith the next word may be analyzed to derive an aggregate degree ofuncertainty for those probability distributions. If, at 4232, theresulting degree of uncertainty is greater than a pre-determinedthreshold level, then at 4234, greater weighting may be given to relyingon the language model to identify the next word most likely to have beenspoken. However, if at 4232, the resulting degree of uncertainty is lessthan the pre-determined threshold level, then at 4236, greater weightingmay be given to relying on the acoustic model to identify the next wordmost likely to have been spoken.

In various embodiments, each of the processors 2350, 2550 and 2750 mayinclude any of a wide variety of commercially available processors.Further, one or more of these processors may include multipleprocessors, a multi-threaded processor, a multi-core processor (whetherthe multiple cores coexist on the same or separate dies), and/or amulti-processor architecture of some other variety by which multiplephysically separate processors are linked.

However, in a specific embodiment, the processor(s) 2350 of each of theone or more node devices 2300 may be selected to efficiently perform theanalysis of multiple instances of pre-processing, processing and/orpost-processing operations at least partially in parallel. By way ofexample, the processors 2350 may incorporate a single-instructionmultiple-data (SIMD) architecture, may incorporate multiple processingpipelines, and/or may incorporate the ability to support multiplesimultaneous threads of execution per processing pipeline. Alternativelyor additionally by way of example, the processor 1550 may incorporatemulti-threaded capabilities and/or multiple processor cores to enableparallel performances of the tasks of more than job flow.

In various embodiments, each of the control routines 2310, 2340, 2370,2510, 2540, 2570 and 2740, including the components of which each iscomposed, may be selected to be operative on whatever type of processoror processors that are selected to implement applicable ones of theprocessors 2350, 2550 and/or 2750 within each one of the devices 2300,2500 and/or 2700, respectively. In various embodiments, each of theseroutines may include one or more of an operating system, device driversand/or application-level routines (e.g., so-called “software suites”provided on disc media, “applets” obtained from a remote server, etc.).Where an operating system is included, the operating system may be anyof a variety of available operating systems appropriate for theprocessors 2350, 2550 and/or 2750. Where one or more device drivers areincluded, those device drivers may provide support for any of a varietyof other components, whether hardware or software components, of thedevices 2300, 2500 and/or 2700.

In various embodiments, each of the storages 2360, 2560 and 2760 may bebased on any of a wide variety of information storage technologies,including volatile technologies requiring the uninterrupted provision ofelectric power, and/or including technologies entailing the use ofmachine-readable storage media that may or may not be removable. Thus,each of these storages may include any of a wide variety of types (orcombination of types) of storage device, including without limitation,read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDR-DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory), ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, one or more individual ferromagneticdisk drives, non-volatile storage class memory, or a plurality ofstorage devices organized into one or more arrays (e.g., multipleferromagnetic disk drives organized into a Redundant Array ofIndependent Disks array, or RAID array). It should be noted thatalthough each of these storages is depicted as a single block, one ormore of these may include multiple storage devices that may be based ondiffering storage technologies. Thus, for example, one or more of eachof these depicted storages may represent a combination of an opticaldrive or flash memory card reader by which programs and/or data may bestored and conveyed on some form of machine-readable storage media, aferromagnetic disk drive to store programs and/or data locally for arelatively extended period, and one or more volatile solid state memorydevices enabling relatively quick access to programs and/or data (e.g.,SRAM or DRAM). It should also be noted that each of these storages maybe made up of multiple storage components based on identical storagetechnology, but which may be maintained separately as a result ofspecialization in use (e.g., some DRAM devices employed as a mainstorage while other DRAM devices employed as a distinct frame buffer ofa graphics controller).

However, in a specific embodiment, the storage 2560 in embodiments inwhich the one or more of the federated devices 2500 provide federatedspaces 2566, or the storage devices 2600 in embodiments in which the oneor more storage devices 2600 provide federated spaces 2566, may beimplemented with a redundant array of independent discs (RAID) of a RAIDlevel selected to provide fault tolerance to objects stored within thefederated spaces 2566.

In various embodiments, the input device 2720 may be any of a variety oftypes of input device that may each employ any of a wide variety ofinput detection and/or reception technologies. Examples of such inputdevices include, and are not limited to, microphones, remote controls,stylus pens, card readers, finger print readers, virtual realityinteraction gloves, graphical input tablets, joysticks, keyboards,retina scanners, the touch input components of touch screens,trackballs, environmental sensors, and/or either cameras or cameraarrays to monitor movement of persons to accept commands and/or dataprovided by those persons via gestures and/or facial expressions.

In various embodiments, the display 2780 may be any of a variety oftypes of display device that may each employ any of a wide variety ofvisual presentation technologies. Examples of such a display deviceincludes, and is not limited to, a cathode-ray tube (CRT), anelectroluminescent (EL) panel, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a gasplasma display, etc. In some embodiments, the display 2780 may be atouchscreen display such that the input device 2720 may be incorporatedtherein as touch-sensitive components thereof.

In various embodiments, each of the network interfaces 2390, 2590 and2790 may employ any of a wide variety of communications technologiesenabling these devices to be coupled to other devices as has beendescribed. Each of these interfaces includes circuitry providing atleast some of the requisite functionality to enable such coupling.However, each of these interfaces may also be at least partiallyimplemented with sequences of instructions executed by correspondingones of the processors (e.g., to implement a protocol stack or otherfeatures). Where electrically and/or optically conductive cabling isemployed, these interfaces may employ timings and/or protocolsconforming to any of a variety of industry standards, including withoutlimitation, RS-232C, RS-422, USB, Ethernet (IEEE-802.3) or IEEE-1394.Where the use of wireless transmissions is entailed, these interfacesmay employ timings and/or protocols conforming to any of a variety ofindustry standards, including without limitation, IEEE 802.11a,802.11ad, 802.11ah, 802.11ax, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.20 (commonlyreferred to as “Mobile Broadband Wireless Access”); Bluetooth; ZigBee;or a cellular radiotelephone service such as GSM with General PacketRadio Service (GSM/GPRS), CDMA/1xRTT, Enhanced Data Rates for GlobalEvolution (EDGE), Evolution Data Only/Optimized (EV-DO), Evolution ForData and Voice (EV-DV), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), HighSpeed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), 4G LTE, 5G, etc.

However, in a specific embodiment, one or more of the network interfaces2390 and/or 2590 may be implemented with multiple copper-based orfiber-optic based network interface ports to provide redundant and/orparallel pathways in exchanging at least the speech data sets 2130.

In various embodiments, the division of processing and/or storageresources among the federated devices 1500, and/or the API architecturesemployed to support communications between the federated devices andother devices may be configured to and/or selected to conform to any ofa variety of standards for distributed processing, including withoutlimitation, IEEE P2413, AllJoyn, IoTivity, etc. By way of example, asubset of API and/or other architectural features of one or more of suchstandards may be employed to implement the relatively minimal degree ofcoordination described herein to provide greater efficiency inparallelizing processing of data, while minimizing exchanges ofcoordinating information that may lead to undesired instances ofserialization among processes. However, it should be noted that theparallelization of storage, retrieval and/or processing of portions ofthe speech data sets 2130 are not dependent on, nor constrained by,existing API architectures and/or supporting communications protocols.More broadly, there is nothing in the manner in which the speech datasets 2130 may be organized in storage, transmission and/or distributionvia the network 2999 that is bound to existing API architectures orprotocols.

Some systems may use Hadoop®, an open-source framework for storing andanalyzing big data in a distributed computing environment. Some systemsmay use cloud computing, which can enable ubiquitous, convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Some grid systems may beimplemented as a multi-node Hadoop® cluster, as understood by a personof skill in the art. Apache™ Hadoop® is an open-source softwareframework for distributed computing.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising at least oneprocessor and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by theat least one processor, cause the at least one processor to performoperations comprising: receive, from a requesting device via a network,a request to perform speech-to-text conversion of a first speech dataset representing a first speech audio; in response to the request, theat least one processor is caused to perform, within a first node device,preprocessing operations comprising: perform at least one pausedetection technique to identify at least a first set of likely sentencepauses; or perform at least one speaker diarization technique toidentify at least a first set of likely speaker changes; and in responseto the request, the at least one processor is caused to perform, withinthe first node device, speech-to-text processing operations comprising:based on at least one of the first set of likely sentence pauses or thefirst set of likely speaker changes, divide the first speech data setinto multiple data segments that each represent a speech segment ofmultiple speech segments of the first speech audio; use a first instanceof an acoustic model with each data segment of the multiple datasegments to derive sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered withinthe corresponding speech segment; store the sets of probabilities intemporal order within a first buffer queue instantiated within the firstnode device; distribute the sets of probabilities, from the first bufferqueue and in temporal order, among multiple threads of a first threadpool, wherein each thread of the first thread pool comprises a thread ofexecution supported by the at least one processor; and within eachthread of the first thread pool, the at least one processor is caused toperform operations comprising: derive at least a first candidate wordfrom one or more sets of probabilities that are distributed to thethread from the first buffer queue; based on at least the one or moresets of probabilities distributed to the thread, select either the firstcandidate word or a second candidate word as a next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, wherein the second candidate word isderived within the thread by the at least one processor using a languagemodel; and add the next word most likely spoken to a first transcript ofthe first speech audio.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, within thefirst node device: the first buffer queue is implemented in afirst-in-first-out (FIFO) configuration; the sets of probabilitiesstored within the first buffer queue are distributed among the threadsof the first thread pool as the derivation and selection of candidatewords within each thread of the first thread pool, and for addition tothe first transcript, are completed; the language model is implementedas a language corpus stored within the first node device as a firstcorpus data set; the multiple threads of the first thread pool shareaccess to the first corpus data set; and within each thread of the firstthread pool, the second candidate word is derived from beam searches ofthe first corpus data set based on one or more temporally precedingwords already selected for addition to the first transcript.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, further comprising multiple node devices, wherein:the multiple node devices comprise the first node device and a secondnode device; a second buffer queue is instantiated within the secondnode device; a second corpus data set is stored within the second nodedevice; a second thread pool comprising multiple threads is instantiatedwithin the second node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool share access to the second corpus data set; sets of probabilitiesof speech sounds uttered within a corresponding speech segment of asecond speech audio are stored in temporal order within the secondbuffer queue; and the sets of probabilities of speech sounds utteredwithin the second speech audio are distributed, in temporal order, amongthe multiple threads of the second thread pool as derivation andselection of candidate words, based on the sets of probabilities ofspeech sounds uttered within the second speech audio, within each threadof the second thread pool are completed for words to add to a secondtranscript of the second speech audio.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3,wherein: the second buffer queue is implemented in a FIFO configuration;and the sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the secondspeech audio are derived using a second instance of the acoustic model.5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein: a second buffer queue isinstantiated within the first node device; a second thread poolcomprising multiple threads is instantiated within the first nodedevice; the multiple threads of the second thread pool share access tothe first corpus data set with the multiple threads of the first threadpool; sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within acorresponding speech segment of a second speech audio are stored intemporal order within the second buffer queue; and the sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speech audioare distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threads of thesecond thread pool, based on the sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within the second speech audio, as derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the second thread pool arecompleted for words to add to a second transcript of the second speechaudio.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein selecting, within eachthread of the first thread pool, either the first candidate word or thesecond candidate word based on at least the one or more sets ofprobabilities distributed to the thread comprises the at least oneprocessor being caused to perform, within the thread, operationscomprising: analyze the one or more sets of probabilities distributed tothe thread to derive a degree of uncertainty; compare the degree ofuncertainty to a threshold degree of uncertainty; in response to thedegree of uncertainty being less than the threshold degree ofuncertainty, the at least one processor is caused to select either thefirst candidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the firstspeech audio; and in response to at least the degree of uncertaintybeing greater than the threshold degree of uncertainty, the at least oneprocessor is caused to select the second candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the speech audio.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6,wherein, within each thread of the first thread pool, the at least oneprocessor is caused to condition expending processing resources to usethe language model to derive the second candidate word on the degree ofuncertainty.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the at least oneprocessor is caused to perform further preprocessing operationscomprising measuring a noise level of at least a portion of the firstspeech audio; and selecting, within each thread of the first threadpool, either the first candidate word or the second candidate word basedon at least the one or more sets of probabilities distributed to thethread comprises the at least one processor being caused to perform,within the thread, operations comprising: compare the noise level to athreshold noise level; in response to the noise level being less thanthe threshold noise level, the at least one processor is caused toselect the first candidate word as the next word most likely spoken inthe first speech audio; and in response to at least the noise levelbeing greater than the threshold noise level, the at least one processoris caused to select the second candidate word as the next word mostlikely spoken in the speech audio.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein,within each thread of the first thread pool, the at least one processoris caused to condition expending processing resources to use thelanguage model to derive the second candidate word on the noise level.10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the first buffer queue comprisesmultiple data buffers; storing the sets of probabilities in temporalorder within the first buffer queue comprises storing, within each databuffer of the multiple data buffers, multiple sets of probabilities thatare derived by the acoustic model from a single data segment of thefirst speech audio; and distributing the sets of probabilities, from thefirst buffer queue and in temporal order, among the multiple threads ofthe first thread pool comprises distributing, to each thread of thefirst thread pool, the multiple sets of probabilities stored within asingle data buffer of the first buffer queue.
 11. A computer-programproduct tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storagemedium, the computer-program product including instructions operable tocause at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receive,from a requesting device via a network, a request to performspeech-to-text conversion of a first speech data set representing afirst speech audio; in response to the request, the at least oneprocessor is caused to perform, within a first node device,preprocessing operations comprising: perform at least one pausedetection technique to identify at least a first set of likely sentencepauses; or perform at least one speaker diarization technique toidentify at least a first set of likely speaker changes; and in responseto the request, the at least one processor is caused to perform, withinthe first node device, speech-to-text processing operations comprising:based on at least one of the first set of likely sentence pauses or thefirst set of likely speaker changes, divide the first speech data setinto multiple data segments that each represent a speech segment ofmultiple speech segments of the first speech audio; use a first instanceof an acoustic model with each data segment of the multiple datasegments to derive sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered withinthe corresponding speech segment; store the sets of probabilities intemporal order within a first buffer queue instantiated within the firstnode device; distribute the sets of probabilities, from the first bufferqueue and in temporal order, among multiple threads of a first threadpool, wherein each thread of the first thread pool comprises a thread ofexecution supported by the at least one processor; and within eachthread of the first thread pool, the at least one processor is caused toperform operations comprising: derive at least a first candidate wordfrom one or more sets of probabilities that are distributed to thethread from the first buffer queue; based on at least the one or moresets of probabilities distributed to the thread, select either the firstcandidate word or a second candidate word as a next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio, wherein the second candidate word isderived within the thread by the at least one processor using a languagemodel; and add the next word most likely spoken to a first transcript ofthe first speech audio.
 12. The computer-program product of claim 11,wherein, within the first node device: the first buffer queue isimplemented in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) configuration; the sets ofprobabilities stored within the first buffer queue are distributed amongthe threads of the first thread pool as the derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the first thread pool, and foraddition to the first transcript, are completed; the language model isimplemented as a language corpus stored within the first node device asa first corpus data set; the multiple threads of the first thread poolshare access to the first corpus data set; and within each thread of thefirst thread pool, the second candidate word is derived from beamsearches of the first corpus data set based on one or more temporallypreceding words already selected for addition to the first transcript.13. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein: the first nodedevice and a second node device comprise two node devices of multiplenode devices; a second buffer queue is instantiated within the secondnode device; a second corpus data set is stored within the second nodedevice; a second thread pool comprising multiple threads is instantiatedwithin the second node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool share access to the second corpus data set; sets of probabilitiesof speech sounds uttered within a corresponding speech segment of asecond speech audio are stored in temporal order within the secondbuffer queue; and the sets of probabilities of speech sounds utteredwithin the second speech audio are distributed, in temporal order, amongthe multiple threads of the second thread pool as derivation andselection of candidate words, based on the sets of probabilities ofspeech sounds uttered within the second speech audio, within each threadof the second thread pool are completed for words to add to a secondtranscript of the second speech audio.
 14. The computer-program productof claim 13, wherein: the second buffer queue is implemented in a FIFOconfiguration; and the sets of probabilities of speech sounds utteredwithin the second speech audio are derived using a second instance ofthe acoustic model.
 15. The computer-program product of claim 12,wherein: a second buffer queue is instantiated within the first nodedevice; a second thread pool comprising multiple threads is instantiatedwithin the first node device; the multiple threads of the second threadpool share access to the first corpus data set with the multiple threadsof the first thread pool; sets of probabilities of speech sounds utteredwithin a corresponding speech segment of a second speech audio arestored in temporal order within the second buffer queue; and the sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speech audioare distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threads of thesecond thread pool, based on the sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within the second speech audio, as derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the second thread pool arecompleted for words to add to a second transcript of the second speechaudio.
 16. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein selecting,within each thread of the first thread pool, either the first candidateword or the second candidate word based on at least the one or more setsof probabilities distributed to the thread comprises the at least oneprocessor being caused to perform, within the thread, operationscomprising: analyze the one or more sets of probabilities distributed tothe thread to derive a degree of uncertainty; compare the degree ofuncertainty to a threshold degree of uncertainty; in response to thedegree of uncertainty being less than the threshold degree ofuncertainty, the at least one processor is caused to select either thefirst candidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the firstspeech audio; and in response to at least the degree of uncertaintybeing greater than the threshold degree of uncertainty, the at least oneprocessor is caused to select the second candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the speech audio.
 17. The computer-program productof claim 16, wherein, within each thread of the first thread pool, theat least one processor is caused to condition expending processingresources to use the language model to derive the second candidate wordon the degree of uncertainty.
 18. The computer-program product of claim11, wherein: the at least one processor is caused to perform furtherpreprocessing operations comprising measuring a noise level of at leasta portion of the first speech audio; and selecting, within each threadof the first thread pool, either the first candidate word or the secondcandidate word based on at least the one or more sets of probabilitiesdistributed to the thread comprises the at least one processor beingcaused to perform, within the thread, operations comprising: compare thenoise level to a threshold noise level; in response to the noise levelbeing less than the threshold noise level, the at least one processor iscaused to select the first candidate word as the next word most likelyspoken in the first speech audio; and in response to at least the noiselevel being greater than the threshold noise level, the at least oneprocessor is caused to select the second candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the speech audio.
 19. The computer-program productof claim 18, wherein, within each thread of the first thread pool, theat least one processor is caused to condition expending processingresources to use the language model to derive the second candidate wordon the noise level.
 20. The computer-program product of claim 11,wherein: the first buffer queue comprises multiple data buffers; storingthe sets of probabilities in temporal order within the first bufferqueue comprises storing, within each data buffer of the multiple databuffers, multiple sets of probabilities that are derived by the acousticmodel from a single data segment of the first speech audio; anddistributing the sets of probabilities, from the first buffer queue andin temporal order, among the multiple threads of the first thread poolcomprises distributing, to each thread of the first thread pool, themultiple sets of probabilities stored within a single data buffer of thefirst buffer queue.
 21. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, by at least one processor, and from a requesting device via anetwork, a request to perform speech-to-text conversion of a firstspeech data set representing a first speech audio; in response to therequest, performing, within a first node device, preprocessingoperations comprising: performing, by the at least one processor, atleast one pause detection technique to identify at least a first set oflikely sentence pauses; or performing, by the at least one processor, atleast one speaker diarization technique to identify at least a first setof likely speaker changes; and in response to the request, performing,within the first node device, speech-to-text processing operationscomprising: based on at least one of the first set of likely sentencepauses or the first set of likely speaker changes, dividing the firstspeech data set into multiple data segments that each represent a speechsegment of multiple speech segments of the first speech audio; using, bythe at least one processor, a first instance of an acoustic model witheach data segment of the multiple data segments to derive sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the corresponding speechsegment; storing the sets of probabilities in temporal order within afirst buffer queue instantiated within the first node device;distributing, by the at least one processor, the sets of probabilities,from the first buffer queue and in temporal order, among multiplethreads of a first thread pool, wherein each thread of the first threadpool comprises a thread of execution supported by the at least oneprocessor; and within each thread of the first thread pool, performingoperations comprising: deriving, by the at least one processor, at leasta first candidate word from one or more sets of probabilities that aredistributed to the thread from the first buffer queue; based on at leastthe one or more sets of probabilities distributed to the thread,selecting, by the at least one processor, either the first candidateword or a second candidate word as a next word most likely spoken in thefirst speech audio, wherein the second candidate word is derived withinthe thread by the at least one processor using a language model; andadding the next word most likely spoken to a first transcript of thefirst speech audio.
 22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21,wherein, within the first node device: the first buffer queue isimplemented in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) configuration; the sets ofprobabilities stored within the first buffer queue are distributed amongthe threads of the first thread pool as the derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the first thread pool, and foraddition to the first transcript, are completed; the language model isimplemented as a language corpus stored within the first node device asa first corpus data set; the multiple threads of the first thread poolshare access to the first corpus data set; and the method comprises,within each thread of the first thread pool, deriving, by the at leastone processor, the second candidate word from beam searches of the firstcorpus data set based on one or more temporally preceding words alreadyselected for addition to the first transcript.
 23. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein: the first node deviceand a second node device are two node devices of multiple node devices;a second buffer queue is instantiated within the second node device; asecond corpus data set is stored within the second node device; a secondthread pool comprising multiple threads is instantiated within thesecond node device; the multiple threads of the second thread pool shareaccess to the second corpus data set; sets of probabilities of speechsounds uttered within a corresponding speech segment of a second speechaudio are stored in temporal order within the second buffer queue; andthe sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within the secondspeech audio are distributed, in temporal order, among the multiplethreads of the second thread pool as derivation and selection ofcandidate words, based on the sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within the second speech audio, within each thread of the secondthread pool are completed for words to add to a second transcript of thesecond speech audio.
 24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23,wherein: the second buffer queue is implemented in a FIFO configuration;and the method comprises using, by the at least one processor, a secondinstance of the acoustic model to derive the sets of probabilities ofspeech sounds uttered within the second speech audio.
 25. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein: a second buffer queueis instantiated within the first node device; a second thread poolcomprising multiple threads is instantiated within the first nodedevice; the multiple threads of the second thread pool share access tothe first corpus data set with the multiple threads of the first threadpool; sets of probabilities of speech sounds uttered within acorresponding speech segment of a second speech audio are stored intemporal order within the second buffer queue; and the sets ofprobabilities of speech sounds uttered within the second speech audioare distributed, in temporal order, among the multiple threads of thesecond thread pool, based on the sets of probabilities of speech soundsuttered within the second speech audio, as derivation and selection ofcandidate words within each thread of the second thread pool arecompleted for words to add to a second transcript of the second speechaudio.
 26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, whereinselecting, within each thread of the first thread pool, either the firstcandidate word or the second candidate word based on at least the one ormore sets of probabilities distributed to the thread comprisesperforming, within the thread, operations comprising: analyzing, by theat least one processor, the one or more sets of probabilitiesdistributed to the thread to derive a degree of uncertainty; comparing,by the at least one processor, the degree of uncertainty to a thresholddegree of uncertainty; in response to the degree of uncertainty beingless than the threshold degree of uncertainty, selecting, by the atleast one processor, either the first candidate word as the next wordmost likely spoken in the first speech audio; and in response to atleast the degree of uncertainty being greater than the threshold degreeof uncertainty, selecting, by the at least one processor, the secondcandidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the speech audio.27. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, comprising, within eachthread of the first thread pool, conditioning expending processingresources to use the language model to derive the second candidate wordon the degree of uncertainty.
 28. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 21, wherein: the method comprises performing further preprocessingoperations comprising measuring a noise level of at least a portion ofthe first speech audio; and selecting, within each thread of the firstthread pool, either the first candidate word or the second candidateword based on at least the one or more sets of probabilities distributedto the thread comprises performing, within the thread, operationscomprising: comparing, by the at least one processor, the noise level toa threshold noise level; in response to the noise level being less thanthe threshold noise level, selecting, by the at least one processor, thefirst candidate word as the next word most likely spoken in the firstspeech audio; and in response to at least the noise level being greaterthan the threshold noise level, selecting, by the at least oneprocessor, the second candidate word as the next word most likely spokenin the speech audio.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 28,comprising, within each thread of the first thread pool, conditioningexpending processing resources to use the language model to derive thesecond candidate word on the noise level.
 30. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 21, wherein: the first buffer queue comprises multipledata buffers; storing the sets of probabilities in temporal order withinthe first buffer queue comprises storing, within each data buffer of themultiple data buffers, multiple sets of probabilities that are derivedby the acoustic model from a single data segment of the first speechaudio; and distributing the sets of probabilities, from the first bufferqueue and in temporal order, among the multiple threads of the firstthread pool comprises distributing, by the at least one processor, toeach thread of the first thread pool, the multiple sets of probabilitiesstored within a single data buffer of the first buffer queue.